Median home price in America tops $350,000 for first time

The median home price in the United States topped $350,000 for the first time in May, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday, per The Wall Street Journal. The figure represents a 23.6 percent increase from May 2020.

The price increase is driven by a "shortage of properties and low interest rates," the Journal reports. Subsequently, sales continue to decline, though May data was "a bit better than expected," writes Liz Ann Sonders, the chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co. Per Sonders, sales dropped by 0.9 percent last month, while economists had predicted a 2.2 percent decrease.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.