With increasing mortgage rates and persistently high inflation that continues to put a strain on many family budgets, affordability has become a top priority for new home buyers in the US.

Although the drop in fuel prices over the summer gave people a certain relief, housing prices in the US continue to climb, with some experts predicting that the housing market bubble is about to burst.

According to new residential sales data from the US Census Bureau and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there has been a double-digit rise in the sales price of new single-family homes since the first quarter of 2021. The steepest rise in this segment of the market was in the third quarter of 2021, when prices soared by almost 22% to $411,200 from the same period in 2020, which showed a median sale price of $337,500.

The increase in housing prices varies significantly across the country, however. The Northeast remains the hottest market, where homes are now much more expensive than they were last year. Statistics show that the median price in Q3 of 2022 surged 43% from the same period in 2021 to $747,000 – this is an appreciation of more than $223,000 within just a year.