Asking Price
The median asking price on active for-sale listings in a market, and how that price is moving.
On this page
The median asking price posted on active for-sale listings in a market, in dollars.
realtor.com defines it as "the median listing price in a given market during the specified month" (Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price in the United States). The figure is drawn from listings currently on the market, half priced above it and half below, and is published without seasonal adjustment.
This is a fourth home-price level on the site, alongside median home value, the Census Bureau's owner estimate, and Zillow home value, a valuation model. Both of those describe what a home is worth. Asking price describes what a seller is asking for it right now — a stated intention, not an owner's opinion and not a model's estimate, and it moves with what is newly and currently for sale rather than with the full stock of homes in an area.
Metrics in this family#
Asking price
The current median asking price, reported as a trailing twelve-month figure so that a single volatile month does not dominate the reading.
Asking price change, 1-year
Change in the median asking price over the past year, as a percentage.
Asking price change, 3-year
Change in the median asking price over the past three years, as a percentage.
Asking price change, 5-year
Change in the median asking price over the past five years, as a percentage.
Asking price vs seasonal norm
The current median asking price compared against this market's own typical level at the same point in prior years, so a reading is judged against the season it falls in rather than against a flat year-round baseline.
Considerations#
This is a list price, not a sale price. No transaction has occurred. A home can list, sell for more or less than its ask, or sell after one or more price cuts — see price cuts. Asking price describes seller expectation at the moment of listing, which can run ahead of or behind what buyers are actually paying.
The figure mixes whatever is currently for sale. A market where mostly large homes are listed in a given month reads differently than the same market when mostly starter homes are listed, even if no home's own value moved. Asking price per square foot controls for the size of what is listed; this level does not.
It is nominal. The dollar figure is not adjusted for general price inflation, so a multi-year change includes inflation alongside any change specific to housing.
Smaller geographies rest on fewer listings. Many ZIP codes carry a modest number of active listings in any given month, so at ZIP grain the median can move on a handful of sellers' decisions. County and metro readings pool more listings and are steadier.
Census tracts have no realtor.com listings of their own. realtor.com publishes at ZIP code, county and metro; a tract's reading is assembled from the ZIP codes that overlap it. A tract split across ZIP codes with different price levels takes a blended value that is smoother than any single ZIP code within it.
Puerto Rico is absent. realtor.com publishes no Puerto Rico rows at any geography. Connecticut is already restated onto its current planning regions rather than its former counties.
Vendor methodology changed in 2022. realtor.com revised how it detects time-on-market and handles duplicate listings; realtor.com states that its published historical series now applies the revised methodology consistently, so the loaded history does not carry a break at that point.
References#
- 1Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price in the United Stateshttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDLISPRIUS