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Luxury home shoppers are running into a serious supply crunch this year. Redfin found the fiercest competition concentrated in unexpected ZIP codes
Daniel Abadia / Unsplash
Mortgage rates sitting near multi-year highs have pushed much of the U.S. housing market into buyers' territory this year, with inventory piling up and sellers cutting prices to close deals. Luxury buyers are moving through that same market in the opposite direction. In dozens of ZIP codes with median sale prices well above their metro's typical home, competition for available inventory hasn't eased at all. Bidding wars are still common, homes are selling in weeks rather than months, and prices keep climbing even as the broader market cools around them.
The numbers behind that split are stark. In some of these high-end ZIP codes, three-quarters of home sales are closing above the asking price, a rate that would be unheard of in a typical buyer's market. Elsewhere, median sale prices in luxury ZIP codes have climbed more than 30% in a single year, even as home sales volume in those same areas has fallen by double digits, a sign that fewer homes are changing hands but for much more money. Days on market in several of these pockets have dropped into the teens, while listing views have jumped by triple digits year over year, evidence that demand for a shrinking pool of listings keeps intensifying.
