Home sale prices rising

Q:

What’s the average price of homes sold in the United States? I know home values have been rising, but I’m not sure by how much. — R.Y., Hackensack, N.J.

A:

You’re certainly right about home prices rising! According to data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, the average sale price of a home sold in the U.S. was $513,400 as of the third quarter of 2023.

That’s actually down a bit from a year earlier, 2022, when the average was a whopping $547,800. But overall, home prices have indeed been rising quickly. In the third quarter of 2021, the average was $473,000, and in 2020, $397,800. A decade ago, in the third quarter of 2013, the average was $324,400.

Remember, though, that averages can be skewed by ultrahigh or ultralow figures, so it’s often best to look at median numbers. The median sale price of houses sold in the U.S. (also according to the St. Louis Fed) is $431,000 for the third quarter of 2023. That means that if you lined up all the sold homes in order of value, the middle one would have sold for $431,000. A decade earlier, the median was much lower, at $264,800.

Q:

I bought some stock, but my brokerage didn’t send me paper stock certificates. Is that normal? — B.K., Eden Prairie, Minn.

A:

It’s very normal — and a good thing, too. Brokerages these days will routinely register shares that investors buy in “street name” — that is, the name of the brokerage. But they keep track of the shares and know they’re yours. This makes it easy for you to sell whenever you want, without having to find and deliver paper certificates you’ve kept in a safe place.