Home Prices Posted the Biggest Increase in Over a Year in April

The median U.S. home sale price rose 2.4% year over year—the biggest increase since March 2025—as house hunters came off the sidelines amid a stabilizing job market. That’s according to a new report from Redfin, the real estate brokerage powered by Rocket. The April jobs report showed stronger-than-expected hiring, reducing recession risk. This likely helped fuel a pop in housing demand. Pending home sales hit the highest level since February 2023 last month, rising 2% from the month before—the largest increase since March 2025. Existing home sales climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.33 million—the highest level since February 2023. Note, all figures in the report are seasonally adjusted, with the exception of median sale price data and mortgage rate data. "Homebuyer demand increased significantly at the end of March following a relatively quiet period in January and February. This is the first time post pandemic I’ve felt the frenzy and comeback of a true spring market,” said Dawn Kane, a Redfin Premier real estate agent who splits her time between Maryland and Pennsylvania. "Still, sellers must maintain realistic pricing strategies. Market data and buyer activity indicate that overpriced homes remain on the market longer, while competitively priced properties sell more quickly and efficiently, often receiving multiple offers." Please note that April marks the first release under Redfin’s updated monthly housing data methodology. Previously, national counts such as active listings were based on a sample of representative counties scaled upward to approximate the total size of the U.S. housing market. Redfin has since removed that scaling in favor of direct aggregation across 3,000+ counties. See Redfin’s new and improved Data Center for a more detailed methodology. Moving forward, monthly data will now be published roughly a week earlier than before. Sellers Also Moved Off the Sidelines in April Active listings of U.S. homes for sale last month hit the highest level since March 2020, rising 1.3% from a month earlier—the largest increase in a year. New listings climbed 2.7% month over month to the highest level since July 2022. Homes Are Selling Faster for the First Time Since 2024 The typical home that went under contract in April did so in 49 days, one day faster than a month earlier. That marks the second month in a row in which homes sold faster than they did during the prior month. The last time home-selling speed was increasing on a month-over-month basis was July 2024. It’s worth noting that while the housing market has been heating up, it’s still more sluggish than it was in recent years. Selling speed is increasing on a monthly basis, but homes still take longer to sell than they did a year ago, and sales and listings remain below pre-pandemic levels. Buyers Discounts May Have Peaked Roughly three of every five (60.5%) homes that sold in April went for less than their original list price. This share has now been declining for six consecutive months. Homebuyers have been scoring large discounts in recent years because it’s a buyer’s market and they have negotiating power given they are far outnumbered by sellers. But these discounts are likely getting harder to come by for two reasons: 1) Homebuyer demand is growing, and 2) sellers are increasingly pricing their homes more competitively, reducing the need to offer discounts. The median new list price rose just 0.9% year over year in April, less than half the gain of the median sale price. List prices are more of a leading indicator than sale prices because they reflect how sellers are thinking about pricing now as opposed to how they were thinking about pricing several months ago. April 2026 Housing Market Highlights: United States April 2026 Month-over-month change Year-over-year change Median sale price $396,173 1.6% 2.4% Existing-home sales, seasonally adjusted annual rate 4,333,388 1.1% 2.8% Pending home sales 350,521 2.0% 5.6% Homes sold 294,846 1.1% 1.2% New listings 398,694 2.7% 0.7% Total homes for sale, (active listings) 1,482,156 1.3% 1.6% Months of supply 3.8 -0.1 -0.1 Median days on market 49 -1 4 Share of homes that sold below original list price 60.5% -0.1 ppts 1.6 ppts Average sale-to-original-list-price ratio 96.2% 0.0 ppts -0.2 ppts Pending sales that fell out of contract, as % of overall pending sales 13.4% -0.1 ppts -0.3 ppts Monthly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate 6.33% 0.15 ppts -0.4 ppts April 2026 Metro-Level Highlights The figures below are based on a list of the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. Some metros may be removed from time to time to ensure data accuracy. Refer to our metrics definition page for explanations of metrics used in this report. All changes below represent year-over-year changes. Prices: Median sale prices rose most from a year earlier in San Francisco (10.7%), Detroit (10.1%) and Providence, RI (9%). They fell most in Dallas (-3.8%), Seattle (-3.3%) and San Jose, CA (-3.2%). Pending home sales: Pending sales rose most in West Palm Beach, FL (39.8%), San Francisco (20.8%) and San Jose (19.1%). They fell most in Houston (-7%), Seattle (-4.6%) and Warren, MI (-4.5%). Closed home sales: Home sales rose most in San Francisco (23%), West Palm Beach (9%) and Milwaukee (8.3%). They fell most in Detroit (-13.5%), San Antonio (-12.4%) and Nassau County, NY (-11.2%). New listings: New listings rose most in Montgomery County, PA (20.7%), New Brunswick, NJ (18%) and Pittsburgh (17.8%). They fell most in Riverside, CA (-24.2%), Anaheim, CA (-18.1%) and Los Angeles (-14.9%). Active listings: Active listings rose most in Seattle (20.8%), Milwaukee (16.3%) and Nashville (14.4%). They fell most in Riverside (-18.8%), Jacksonville, FL (-17.8%) and Anaheim (-15.7%). Days on market: In San Antonio, the typical home that went under contract did so in 88 days, which was 16 days longer than a year earlier—the biggest increase among the metros analyzed. Next came Houston (+14 days) and Nashville (+13 days). Five metros saw decreases: Newark, NJ (-6 days), West Palm Beach (-2 days), Riverside (-1 day), Jacksonville (-1 day) and St. Louis (-1 day). To read the full report, including charts and additional metro-level data, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/home-prices-rise-april-2026