PROFIT MARGINS FOR U.S. HOME SELLERS MOSTLY UNCHANGED DURING SECOND QUARTER DESPITE RENEWED PRICE SPIKE
Returns on Typical U.S. Home Sales Increase Slightly to 56 Percent; Margins Generally Flat Even as Median U.S. Home Price Hits New High During Spring Buying Season; Median Raw Profits Rise Back Over $130,000 ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, released its second-quarter 2024 U.S. Home Sales Report, which shows that home sellers earned a 55.8 percent profit margin on typical single-family home and condo sales in the United States during the second quarter. That figure was largely unchanged, rising about one percentage point from the first quarter of 2024, but remaining down one point from the second quarter of last year. The nationwide investment return barely moved, and still was far behind a highwater mark hit in 2022, despite the median U.S. home price shooting up during the 2024 Spring home-buying season to a new record of $365,000. The price surge did help boost typical raw profits for sellers back over $130,000. That nearly marked a new all-time peak. But it failed to broadly boost profit margins – the percentage return on investment – around the country because the renewed price surge was not enough to outpace spikes recent sellers had been absorbing when they originally bought their homes. “The second-quarter profit report offers a mixed bag of plusses and minuses that added up to an overall picture of not much change for sellers,” said Rob Barber, chief executive officer for ATTOM. “Prices jumped back upward, which was great news for owners. So did raw profits. Profit margins also remained historically elevated. But the bottom-line profit-margin trend didn’t move much at all because soaring prices are far from a new thing. Even greater price improvements will be needed to kick margins up over the rest of the year.” The latest price and profit numbers reflect a period when the national median home value shot up 9 percent quarterly and 6 percent annually. Those gains came amid the usual Springtime rise in demand among house hunters, combined with home-mortgage rates remaining relatively stable at just below 7 percent for a 30-year fixed loan, and historically tight supplies of homes for sale that made bargains few and far between. The price increases, however, did not boost investment returns notably because median values had been rising about 8 percent quarterly and 7 percent annually during the time when homeowners were buying the properties they then sold during the second-quarter of this year. Those similar price patterns largely cancelled each other out. Profit margins tick upward quarterly while still down annually in majority of nation Typical profit margins – the percent difference between median purchase and resale prices – increased from the first quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2024 in 94 (58.8 percent) of the 160 metropolitan statistical areas around the U.S. with sufficient data to analyze. But they remained down annually in 100, or 62.5 percent, of those metros. They also were down in about three quarters of those areas from the second quarter of 2022, when the nationwide return on median-priced home sales peaked at 64.3 percent. The higher end of the housing market – metro areas where home values mostly topped $350,000 – absorbed the brunt of the year-over-year softening of profit margins. About three quarters of those areas saw typical margins decline compared to about half of lower-priced markets. Metro areas were included if they had sufficient population and at least 1,000 single-family home and condo sales in the second quarter of 2024. The biggest year-over-year decreases in typical profit margins came in the metro areas of Hilo, HI (margin down from 80.5 percent in the second quarter of 2023 to 45.3 percent in the second quarter of 2024); Port St. Luce, FL (down from 95 percent to 73.9 percent); Daphne-Fairhope, FL (down from 49.8 percent to 34 percent); Crestview-Fort Walton Beach, FL (down from 60.7 percent to 45.1 percent) and Naples, FL (down from 84.9 percent to 69.2 percent). The biggest annual profit-margin decreases in metro areas with a population of at least 1 million in the second quarter of 2024 were in Honolulu, HI (return down from 51.8 percent to 38.5 percent); Austin, TX (down from 50.3 percent to 40.3 percent); Nashville, TN (down from 72.9 percent to 63.3 percent); Seattle, WA (down from 94.4 percent to 85 percent) and San Antonio, TX (down from 34.9 percent to 27 percent). The biggest annual improvements in returns on investment came in Syracuse, NY (margin up from 51.6 percent in the second quarter of 2023 to 71.8 percent in the second quarter of 2024); Rockford, IL (up from 54.8 percent to 74.5 percent); Scranton, PA (up from 79.9 percent to 97.7 percent); Lansing, MI (up from 50.1 percent to 62.7 percent) and Roanoke, VA (up from 45.1 percent to 56.1 percent). The largest annual increases in profit margins among metro areas with a population of at least 1 million came in Rochester, NY (up from 66.2 percent to 76 percent); Cleveland, OH (up from 53.5 percent to 61 percent); Hartford, CT (up from 65.8 percent to 73.3 percent); Chicago, IL (up from 39.5 percent to 46.1 percent) and Providence, RI (up from 73.3 percent to 78.8 percent). Investment returns still exceed 50 percent in two-thirds of U.S. Despite the latest trends, returns on investment for median-priced home sales during the second quarter of 2024 surpassed 50 percent in 106 of the metro areas analyzed (66.3 percent). That was down from almost three quarters of those areas in the second quarter of last year but far above the level of about 10 percent five years ago. The investment return leaders among areas with a population of at least 1 million in the second quarter of this year were San Jose, CA (typical return of 109.6 percent); Seattle, WA (85 percent); San Francisco, CA (83.6 percent); Boston, MA (81.3 percent) and Miami, FL (80.3 percent). Among areas with a population of at least 1 million, those with the lowest typical returns were in
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