The U.S. housing market had a strong 2017, according to a Redfin report released Thursday.
National home prices last year increased 7% to a median sales price of $284,500, while sales increased 1.7% over 2016.
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The year ended strong, too. Prices were up 6.8% in December from the same time the prior year to a national median sale price of $287,000 across the 75 markets Redfin serves—which does not include New York City—according to the report. But sales numbers were down 2.8% in December, and the number of homes for sale declined 14.5% compared to a year ago, marking 27 months in a row of inventory declines.
With just 2.6 months of supply in December, the market was far below the six months of supply that represents a balance between buyers and sellers, the report said, skewing heavily in favor of sellers.
The report did not highlight luxury sales figures.
San Jose, California, had just 0.5 months of inventory in December, the lowest monthly supply Redfin recorded. Seattle and Oakland, California, followed suit, both with 0.6 months of supply in December.
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But San Jose also had the fastest and most competitive market in December, the report said, with the typical home finding a buyer in a median of 12 days, followed by Seattle and Oakland at 15 days and 16 days, respectively.
With San Jose’s year-over-year price growth of 31.9% pushing its median sales price up to $1.10 million—the second highest logged, behind San Francisco’s $1.32 million—the town logged the steepest year-over-year price growth of the metro areas Redfin tracks and witnessed inventory declines for three months in a row.
"Even highly paid tech workers are priced out of San Francisco and moving to San Jose," said Redfin San Jose agent Kalena Masching in the report. "This demand coupled with low inventory and job growth at the tech campuses in the South Bay has caused prices to soar."