Report: Profit Margins Dip For Sellers in First Quarter 2021

From Staff Reports

American homeowners looking to cash in on the hot real estate market are making money like crazy. But, according to a report from ATTOM Data Solutions, the market is less crazy than it was in the final quarter of 2020.

The winter months that make up the first quarter are usually quieter, but all bets are off in this absolutely cuckoo market. The typical first-quarter 2021 home sale in the United States generated a profit of $70,050. That was down from $75,750 in the fourth quarter of 2020 but still up 26 percent from $55,750 in the first quarter of 2020, The report detailed.

Return on investment is down, too. The typical $70,050 home-sale profit represented a 34.2 percent return on investment compared to the original purchase price — down from 37.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 but still higher than the 30.8 percent level recorded a year ago.

“The latest data on home prices and seller profits across the U.S. provide the latest markers of how the U.S. housing market keeps roaring ahead even as major parts of the broader economy try to overcome the impact of the pandemic,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions. “However, the market did take a break from rising prices in the first quarter of 2021, and while that’s not unusual for the beginning of the year, it’s definitely something to keep on eye on as we move into the Spring buying season. The next few months will speak huge volumes about whether the market keeps barreling ahead. For now, though, sellers remain in the drivers seat, ringing up great profits.”

If you’re looking to make a wad of cash, the best place to have a home on the market is Tennessee, it seems. While Nashville and Chattanooga made the list, it was Knoxville that had a margin up from 45 percent in the first quarter of 2020 to 122.1 percent in the first quarter of 2021. Yikes!

Almost every major metro area is seeing home values rise.

Despite the economic fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic, median home prices in the first quarter of 2021 surpassed figures from a year earlier in 97 percent of metropolitan statistical areas with enough data to analyze. Nationally, the median home price of $275,000 in the first quarter was up 16 percent from $236,250 in the first quarter of 2020, despite a 2 percent drop from the peak of $280,000 in the fourth quarter of last year.

The largest annual increases in metro areas with a population of at least 1 million in the first quarter of 2021 were in Phoenix, AZ (up 20 percent); Seattle, WA (up 20 percent); Philadelphia, PA (up 20 percent); New York, NY (up 19 percent) and Buffalo, NY (up 19 percent).

Home prices in the first quarter of 2021 hit or tied new peaks in 40 percent of the metro areas in the report, including New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; Miami, FL and Boston, MA.

FHA-financed purchases are at a nearly 13-year low.

Nationwide, buyers using Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans accounted for only 10 percent of all single-family home and condo purchases in the first quarter of 2021, the second-lowest level since 2008. The latest figure was down from 11.1 percent in the previous quarter and from 12.3 percent a year earlier.

Among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000 and sufficient FHA-buyer data, those with the highest levels of FHA buyers in the first quarter of 2021 were Beaumont, TX (27.2 percent of all sales); Amarillo, TX (25 percent); Visalia, CA (24.2 percent); Las Cruces, NM (24 percent) and Merced, CA (23.4 percent).