What $300K Buys You Now

With home prices up and inventory down, the housing recovery in many areas is now in full swing.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

With home prices up and inventory down, the housing recovery in many areas is now in full swing. Would-be buyers must take special steps to make their bids stand out in this seller's market. Kiplinger expects sales of existing homes to increase by 7.5% this year, reaching the five million mark for the first time in five years. The median time on the market has declined 45% over the last year.

While the national median home price is $177,500, it’s considerably higher in some areas that are gaining ground. In Seattle, for example, it’s $290,000; in the San Francisco/Oakland metro area, it's $470,000.

To continue reading this article
please register for free

This is different from signing in to your print subscription


Why am I seeing this? Find out more here

Andrea Browne Taylor
Contributing Editor

Browne Taylor joined Kiplinger in 2011 and was a channel editor for Kiplinger.com covering living and family finance topics. She previously worked at the Washington Post as a Web producer in the Style section and prior to that covered the Jobs, Cars and Real Estate sections. She earned a BA in journalism from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is Director of Member Services, at the National Association of Home Builders.