Generally speaking, home prices rise more than they fall. If you look at year-over-year data, you’ll see home prices increase a few percentage points almost every year. There are, of course, exceptions, but homeownership got its reputation as a safe investment for good reason. So the real question is by how much and how quickly are prices are rising. One way to tell is to look at asking prices. The asking price of a home is the amount the seller hopes to get for it – not the final sales price. In most years, asking prices won’t surpass the previous year’s peak until spring, when the sales season starts to heat up. This year, though, they’ve already beat 2020’s high. In fact, according to one recent report, asking prices of newly listed homes hit $334,770 during the first week of February. That’s a 10 percent jump from last year at the same time. It’s also an indication that prices are rising quickly and will likely continue to until more homes become available for sale. (source)
