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Luxury Homes in the U.S. Sold Faster Than Ever in Second Quarter

In Oakland, California, big-ticket homes sold in just 17 days

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Oakland, California

Jerry Trudell the Skys the Limit/Getty Images
Oakland, California
Jerry Trudell the Skys the Limit/Getty Images

High-end real estate buyers in the U.S. weren’t wasting any time in the second quarter, snapping up luxury homes faster than ever, according to a report Monday from Redfin.

Big-ticket homes went into contract after an average of 65 days on market, six days faster than the second quarter of last year, and the fastest sale time recorded since Redfin began tracking the metric almost a decade ago.

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Redfin defines luxury property as the most expensive 5% of sales in each of the 100 U.S. cities it analyzes.   

Perhaps unsurprisingly, homes in California’s Bay Area were the fastest-moving inventory in the country. The area’s real estate market—propelled by the lucrative tech industry—has seen prices surge and inventory turn scarce.

Luxury homes sold the fastest in Oakland, where they spent an average of 17 days on the market. In San Jose, homes took 19 days to sell, and in San Francisco, they took 29.

Outside of the Golden State, Seattle and Washington, D.C., followed, seeing property spend 43 days and 44 days on the market, respectively.

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"Demand for luxury homes in the U.S. has strengthened this year because stock-market gains and tax reform put more money in the pockets of the wealthy," said Sheharyar Bokhari, senior economist at Redfin in the report. "Yet the inventory shortage is ongoing—even among multi-million-dollar homes. As a result, we are seeing luxury homes sell in record time. The good news is that inventory declined at a slower rate last quarter, which has alleviated some of the upward pressure on prices, resulting in slightly lower price growth in the luxury market last quarter."

Luxury home prices rose 5.2% year over year to an average of $1.87 million in the second quarter of 2018, Redfin said. In the first quarter, prices were up 7.3%.

Cities across Florida and the western U.S. led luxury home price growth in the second quarter. In West Palm Beach, Florida, the average sale price for a luxury home soared 85% over last year to $2.24 million, according to the report. Luxury home prices were up 59.1% in Boynton Beach, Florida; 27.7% in Henderson, Nevada; and 27.5% in Seattle.