Residential real estate market: Sales outlook and trends

The residential real estate market tumbled in 2023, as soaring interest rates steadily slowed sales activity — but home prices still hit a record high.

The median home sale price in 2023 was $389,800, up about 1% from 2022 and the highest on record, according to data from the National Association of Realtors released Friday.

That is good news for the 85 million homeowning households that enjoyed further gains in housing wealth, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR. However, it proved to be a maddening market for new homebuyers, who were priced out by rising prices and, for much of the year, surging mortgage rates that made this the least affordable market in decades.

As a result of high prices and low inventory, home sales dropped to their lowest level since 1995, with 4.09 million homes sold, down 19% from the year before. This follows an 18% drop in home sales from 2021 to 2022.

Here’s a look at where home sales are headed in Greensboro.