Home Prices Hit Record High for June, Just Not in Texas
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Those hoping to see home prices calm down got a rude awakening last week when the National Association of Realtors clocked record-high listings for June.
Nationally, the median sales price for existing homes hit $435,300, marking a 2% increase for the month year-over-year. Meanwhile, the sale of existing homes dipped by 2.7% between May and June of this year. While this is disappointing news for realtors and prospective buyers, there are some clear winners here: homeowners.
Developers’ failure to deliver enough new housing stock the last several years has led to swelling valuations. Home ownership has always been Americans’ surest way to build wealth, and it seems that’s never been more true.
“Homeowners are sitting on a ton of equity, especially compared to just a few years ago,” said Alex Thomas, macro research manager for John Burns Research & Consulting, citing data covering all homes in the market rather than just transactions. “The average homeowner household has $393K in equity, up from less than $300K in 2019.”
NAR’s national figures may be discouraging to prospective homebuyers, but Thomas told CandysDirt.com that such metrics can obscure important regional variations.
“We know that home prices are actually falling year-over-year in Florida and Texas and may soon begin falling in parts of the Southwest and California as inventory rises,” he said.
True enough, Texas Realtors’ Texas Quarterly Housing Report for Q2 2025 shows that the median price for the quarter ticked down by 1.4% year-over-year, landing at $340,000. Meanwhile, closed sales increased by 1.4% with 95,364 transactions logged.
Zooming in on the D-FW, the median home price decreased by 1.2% for the quarter, clocking in at $400,000. Closed sales dipped by 0.1% with 26,190 transactions.
Despite Texas bucking the trend somewhat, affordability remains a serious concern for prospective homebuyers. While officials in the Lone Star State worked to encourage housing construction this past legislative session, Texas home values remain prohibitively high for many.
Adding to the high home prices are elevated mortgage rates, which were inching upward earlier this month before settling back down last week at 6.74% for the 30-year and 5.87% for the 15-year, according to Freddie Mac. Consider rates were at less than 3% back in 2021.
NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun cited high mortgage rates as a significant obstacle for many buyers. An analysis conducted by NAR found that if the 30-year came down to 6%, some 5.5 million more households would be able to afford the median-priced home.
“If mortgage rates decrease in the second half of this year, expect home sales to increase across the country due to strong economic growth, healthy inventory, and a record-high number of jobs,” Yun said.
Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, and others on the central bank’s board have been hesitant to lower benchmark interest rates in light of President Donald Trump’s tariff-heavy approach to international trade.
Despite calls by the president to lower rates, Powell and other Fed officials fear a loose monetary policy combined with the consequent price hikes from tariffs will increase inflation, which still isn’t at the 2% target level.
