Home sellers made a $121,000 profit and a 56.5% return on investment (ROI) for the typical sale in 2023, according to data from ATTOM. Last year’s figures were down from the $122,600 profit and 59.8% ROI recorded in 2022 – the first decline in either category since 2011.
Also in 2023, the median home price increased 2.1% from 2022, reaching an all-time annual high of $335,000. While the typical 2023 price was more than double the nationwide median in 2011 – the point in time right before the housing market began recovering from the aftereffects of the Great Recession – it nonetheless represented the smallest annual bump during the extended boom period that began in 2012. The full-year median home-price appreciation slowed down as interest rates rose in 2023 close to 8% for a 30-year mortgage.
While gains were mostly small, median prices still rose from 2022 to 2023 in 97 of the 129 metropolitan statistical areas (75%) with a population of 200,000 or more.
“Last year certainly stood out as another very good year for home sellers across most of the United States. Typical profits of over $120,000 and margins close to 60 percent were still more than double where they stood just five years earlier,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “But the market definitely softened amid modest price gains that weren’t enough to push profits up higher after a long run of improvements. In 2024, the stage seems set for more small changes in prices as well as seller gains given the competing forces of interest rates that have headed back down in recent months and home supplies that remain tight, but home ownership costs that remain a serious financial burden for many households.”
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