Home Price ROI Reaches 10-Year Peak

Blomquist cites a scarcity of both starter and move-up homes on the residential market.

IRVINE, CA—Although homeowners who sold in the first quarter realized the highest average price gains in nearly a decade, they’re keeping their homes longer. ATTOM Data Solutions said Thursday that homeowners who sold in Q1 had owned their properties for an average of 7.97 years—a slight decrease from the record-high tenure of eight years set the previous quarter but still well above the average of 4.26 years between 2000 and 2007.

With a gain of $44,000—an average premium of 24%, the highest since Q3 ‘07—on a single-family home, “the first quarter of 2017 was the most profitable time to be a home seller in nearly a decade, and yet homeowners are continuing to stay put in their homes longer before selling,” says Daren Blomquist, SVP with ATTOM. “This counterintuitive combination is in part the result of the low inventory of move-up homes available for current homeowners, while also perpetuating the scarcity of starter homes available for first-time homebuyers.”