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Home prices rose in every major metro area last month

Samantha Fields Jan 23, 2025
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Home prices in Midwestern cities like Cleveland are rising, but they're rising from comparatively low levels. halbergman/Getty Images

Home prices rose in every major metro area last month

Samantha Fields Jan 23, 2025
Heard on:
Home prices in Midwestern cities like Cleveland are rising, but they're rising from comparatively low levels. halbergman/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
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Home prices rose in every major metro area around the country in December for the first time since 2022, according to new data from Redfin. The biggest increases were in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. 

Prices just keep going up — it’s not exactly what most would-be home buyers want to hear.

With mortgage rates stubbornly high and inventory stubbornly low, “demand’s starting to shift to some of these Midwest markets — you know, those are some of the last bastions of housing affordability in the U.S.,” said Chris Salviati, senior housing economist at Apartment List.

A few years ago, prices were shooting up the most in Sun Belt cities in Texas and Florida that, at the time, were still relatively affordable.

Today, “people still are moving to Florida, but it’s more expensive now than it used to be, which limits how much prices can grow,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

In the Midwest, home prices are still low relative to the rest of the country. Take Cleveland, for example. “The median sale price is $229,000, which makes it more possible for prices to rise 15% because they’re rising from such a low level,” Fairweather said.

But it’s not just the Midwest; prices are rising everywhere. 

A lot of people have been holding off buying for a while, hoping mortgage rates would come down, Chris Salviati said.

“And now that we haven’t seen those rates really move in a significant way, you might be seeing some folks just getting acclimated to what the new rates are,” he noted — and those prospective buyers may be decide to just go for it rather than waiting forever.

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