Short answer. The 2024 median existing-home sale price was $408,000 (NAR). The 2024 median new single-family home sale price was $458,200 (Census).
The 2024 annual figures were:
- Median existing-home sale price: $408,000 (NAR Existing Home Sales report)
- Median new single-family sale price: $458,200 (Census Survey of Construction)
Both are all-time nominal highs. The existing-home median rose 4.7% YoY; the new-home median rose 7.6% YoY.
What drove prices higher despite weak sales?
Existing-home transaction volume in 2024 was 4.06M — the lowest since 1995. Prices held and rose because of the rate-lock effect: with 76% of U.S. mortgaged owners holding loans below 5%, listing inventory stayed at multi-decade lows. The few homes that did clear were generally cleared at full asking price or above.
Inflation context
In real (CPI-adjusted) terms, the 2024 median existing-home price of $408,000 is roughly 13% above the previous real-terms peak set in 2005. By any historical comparison, U.S. housing prices in 2024 are at all-time highs.
How $408,000 compares to recent history
- 2014: $208,300 (the year prices finally regained their 2007 nominal peak)
- 2019: $271,900 (final pre-pandemic reading)
- 2020: $295,300 (+8.6% YoY, pandemic surge begins)
- 2021: $357,100 (+20.9% YoY — the largest single-year jump on record)
- 2022: $386,300 (+8.2% YoY)
- 2023: $389,800 (+0.9% YoY — flat as rate-lock took hold)
- 2024: $408,000 (+4.7% YoY — new all-time high)
The pandemic-era surge took the median price from $271,900 to $408,000 in five years — a 50% nominal increase, or roughly 8.5% compounded annually. Over the same period, median household income rose roughly 22% nominal. That divergence — prices growing 2.3× faster than incomes — is the arithmetic origin of the 2024 record-low affordability reading.
What the buyer's monthly payment looks like
On the 2024 median existing home of $408,000 with 20% down, the buyer financed $326,400 at the 6.84% PMMS annual average — a principal-and-interest payment of roughly $2,138 per month. Add property taxes (~$340/mo at the 1% national average) and homeowners insurance (~$180/mo), and the all-in monthly housing cost on the median home reaches approximately $2,658, against a 2024 median household income of $83,730 ($6,978/month gross). That's a 38% housing-cost-to-income ratio — well above the 28% Fannie Mae underwriting guideline and the highest reading in the modern record.
Related
- How much have home prices risen since 1968?
- U.S. housing price-to-income ratio
- When was U.S. housing most affordable?
- The rate-lock effect explains 2024's price-volume divergence
- U.S. housing market in 2024 — full year archive
- Median home price history dashboard
Sources
U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Construction; National Association of Realtors Existing Home Sales report; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey; National Bureau of Economic Research Business Cycle Dating Committee.