Average Home Seller Profits at 10 Year High!

Prices are rising and homeowners are staying put longer, and that means more homeowners can cash in when they go to sell. Home seller profits surged to a 10-year high in the fourth quarter of 2017. Sellers saw an average home price gain since purchase of $54,000, up from $47,133 a year ago. In Boston, Cambridge, Newton markets the average seller profit was $141,800, that’s an average Seller ROI or 54%.

“It’s the most profitable time to sell a home in more than 10 years, yet homeowners are staying put longer than we’ve ever seen,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “While home sellers on the West Coast are realizing the biggest profits, rapid home price appreciation in red state markets is rivaling that of the high-flying coastal markets and producing sizable profits for home sellers in those middle-American markets as well.”

That $54,000 national average seller profit represents an average 29.7 percent return on investment compared to the original purchase price. That is the highest average home seller return on investment since the third quarter of 2007, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q4 2017 Home Sales Report, released this week.

In downtown Boston and the immediate suburbs each week we’re seeing only a few new homes hit the market in each neighborhood and in each price point.  With such little competition they are quickly snapped up in bidding wars by Monday.  At our own open houses in neighborhoods like South Boston, Jamaica Plain, Newton and Somerville we’re seeing buyers out actively looking each weekend. The rising interest rates and somewhat mild winter are certainly helping to get buyers out into the market.

Meanwhile, homeownership tenure set a new record high in the fourth quarter of 2017. Homeowners who sold in the quarter had owned their homes on average 8.18 years, up from 7.78 years in the fourth quarter of 2016. It is the longest average home seller tenure since ATTOM Data Solutions has tracked it starting in the first quarter of 2000.