Home sellers booked a profit of $61,000 on average from the sale of their homes in 2018, up from $50,000 in the prior year. The gain was $39,500 in 2016, the highest level since 2006.

The 2018 performance represented an average 32.6 percent return on investment compared to the original purchase price, up from 27.0 percent last year and up from 21.9 percent in 2016, according to the “Year-End 2018 U.S. Home Sales Report” from Attom Data Solutions.

"The economy is still going strong and home loan rates remain historically low. But there are potential clouds on the horizon,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at Attom Data Solutions. “The effects of last year's tax cuts are wearing off as limits on homeowner tax deductions are in place and mortgage rates are ticking up ever so slowly, so this could dampen the potential for home price gains in 2019."

Among 217 metropolitan statistical areas with a population greater than 200,000 and sufficient historical data, the highest returns on investment were almost exclusively in western states, with concentrations along areas of the west coast. Those with the highest average home seller returns were San Jose, Calif. (108.8 percent); San Francisco, (78.6 percent); Seattle (70.7 percent); Merced, Calif. (66.4 percent); and Santa Rosa, Calif. (66.1 percent).

San Jose and Las Vegas lead major metros in home price appreciation
The U.S. median home price in 2018 was $248,000, up 5.5 percent from 2017 to a new all-time high. Annual home price appreciation in 2018 slowed slightly compared to the 7.1 percent in 2017.

Along with San Jose and Las Vegas, other major metro areas with a population of at least 1 million with a double-digit percentage increase in home prices in 2018 were Grand Rapids, Mich. (10.6 percent); San Francisco (10.3 percent); Columbus, Ohio (10.1 percent); and Atlanta (10.1 percent). Fully 88 of the 127 metros (69 percent) reached new record home price peaks in 2018, including Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta, and Boston.

By Dave Hershman

 There is no doubt that time is a business person’s most precious resource. In fact, time is everyone’s most precious resource.

[caption id="attachment_9654" align="alignleft" width="268"] Dave Hershman[/caption]

We never realize how precious time is until we run out of it.

George Burns lived a 100 years, yet he never had time for his final performance.

We all waste too much of this precious resource.

Many years ago, when we began teaching methods of improving time management skills, we introduced the concept of 1435 in order to prove a major point. What is 1435? It is the number of minutes left in the day after we waste five minutes. For the average person, we waste over one-third of our workday, either procrastinating or working on tasks that will not help us achieve our long-term objectives.

The key to getting more done? Developing a sense of urgency with regard to what needs to be accomplished. A simple exercise will demonstrate the different state of mind that we must achieve.

Imagine your last vacation. The serenity of knowing that you didn’t have to check messages or get up at a certain time. Perhaps you had no special agenda. After a few days of unwinding, work was the farthest from your mind—hopefully.

Now think of the day before you left on that vacation. Do you now have a different memory? Was that day a little more stressful? We would venture to say that the day before you left was your most effective time management day of the year. That day you accomplished more than any other. You quickly determined priorities and went about achieving those priorities.

If you failed, you would not get out of town on time. The day before vacation you had an urgency about what needed to get done. The key to better time management is to develop this sense of urgency every day of your life.

Perhaps we should take more vacations.

About the Author: Dave Hershman is a VP of Sales for Weichert Financial Services and founder or OriginationPro (www.OriginationPro.com), providing marketing content and training programs for the industry. Email him with questions or comments at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The share of homes sold above asking price declined each month in the second half of 2018, and December saw the biggest month-over-month drop since at least 2012, another sign of the slowing housing market.

Nineteen percent of home sales in the U.S. went for above asking in December, down from 21 percent in November and a peak of 24 percent in May. While lower than the highs of this spring, the level remains above the 17-percent range from 2014.

This downward trend in December was widespread: Eight of the 10 largest markets in the U.S. experienced a drop from November levels, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., were the exceptions. Among the largest 35 markets, 27 saw a downtick in the share of homes that sold above list. The largest drop was in Indianapolis, where homes selling above list fell nearly 13 percentage points, followed by San Francisco, down 5.4 percentage points. Notably, San Francisco still saw the second-highest share of homes sell above list price in December (42.6 percent) among top-35 markets, exceeded only by San Antonio (44.3 percent).

Despite the slowdown during the back half of the year, the annual share of homes sold above list price still trended upward for the fourth consecutive year, though the pace is slowing. Nationally, 23.5 percent of homes sold above list price in 2018 compared to 22.7 percent in 2017. The median amount above asking that sellers realized fell from $7,000to $6,830.

"Last year marked an inflection point in the housing market. The first half of 2018 looked a lot like the previous three years with sellers firmly in control of the market and buyers outbidding each other for scarce inventory, pushing up prices," said Zillow’s senior economist Aaron Terrazas. "But something shifted mid-summer. Sellers sitting on the sidelines joined in, increasing inventory. With mortgage rates now back down, early data from the first month of 2019 suggest that it is still premature to call it a buyer's market."

The San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley remained the hottest housing region in the country in 2018. Among top-35 markets, San Jose, Calif., (64.1 percent) and San Francisco (61.6 percent) had the highest share of home sales above asking price despite a steady slowdown since the start of last year. These two markets combine to fill the top-10 lists for share of homes sold above asking and median price above asking since Zillow began tracking this data in 2012. This includes a record $101,000 median price above asking in San Jose in 2018, shattering the previous record of $70,000 set in San Jose in 2017.

Miami (9.7 percent of homes sold above asking), Tampa Bay (14.5 percent) and Pittsburgh (15.2 percent) were 2018's coolest top-35 markets. Nearly 84 percent of homes in Miami sold for below their asking price last year, which was the highest share among top-35 markets since 2014.

Pending home sales declined overall in December, but for the second straight month the West experienced a slight increase.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on home contract signings, decreased 2.2 percent to 99 in December, down from 101.2 in November, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“The longer-term growth potential is high. The Federal Reserve announced a change in its stance on monetary policy,” said Yun. “Rather than four rate hikes, there will likely be only one increase or even none at all. This has already spurred a noticeable fall in the 30-year, fixed-rate for mortgages. As a result, the forecast for home transactions has greatly improved.”

Also, year-over-year contract signings fell 9.8 percent, making this the twelfth straight month of annual decreases.

“The stock market correction hurt consumer confidence, record high home prices cut into affordability and mortgage rates were higher in October and November for consumers signing contracts in December,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR.

The four major regions experienced a decline compared to one year ago, with the South sustaining the largest decrease. The partial government shutdown hasn’t caused any obvious damage to home sales.

“Seventy-five percent of Realtors reported that they haven’t yet felt the impact of the government closure,” said Yun. “However, if another government shutdown takes place, it will lead to fewer homes sold. Some home transactions were delayed, but we now expect those sales to go forward.”

The Pending Home Sales Index in the Northeast rose 2 percent to 93.2 in December, 2.5 percent below a year ago. In the Midwest, the index fell 0.6 percent to 97.5 in December, 7.2 percent lower than the same period a  year earlier.

Pending home sales in the South fell 5 percent to an index of 109.7 in December, which is 13.5 percent lower than a year ago. The index in the West increased 1.7 percent in December to 88.4 and fell 10.8 percent below a year ago.