Buying a Luxury Home in the Southeast in 2022

If you're thinking about downsizing or moving to a new location, perhaps to retire to your dream locale or to be near family, you'll want to understand what's happening with the current housing market.

The year 2021 was an extreme sellers' market, with high demand for housing and low supply, which has led to rising house prices. Across the country, home prices rose 18.6% year-over-year from 2020 to 2021.1 The housing market varies, though, based on location and price point, so keeping general trends in mind, you'll still need to do a deep dive for your area when getting ready to sell or buy.

If you're thinking of selling your current home and wish to buy a luxury home in the Southeast this year, it helps to be prepared for what you might find.

Selling your home in the current market

You should fare well if you're thinking of selling your home in 2022, as this year is looking to be a continuation of 2021.2 The last time house prices increased this much were the years leading up to the financial crisis of 2008. But today's market is different.3

The similarity to 2008 is the skyrocketing home prices of this past year. For example, in Atlanta, the median house price rose an astounding 23% from January 2021 to January 2022.4 Miami-Dade County's home prices rose 14.8% from December 2020 to December 2021.5 Despite rising prices, most markets are still experiencing high demand and low inventory. Combined with a low-interest-rate climate, these conditions create the potential for a strong housing market moving forward.

Atlanta is a great example of this latest real estate trend. In the chart below, courtesy of InfoSparks from ShowingTime, you can see how many days luxury homes have been staying on the market for sale.6 Note that, to qualify as a luxury home in this example, the home must be a detached single-family home with four or more bedrooms, more than 2,500 square feet, and a sales price of at least $600,000. In January 2020, these types of homes were on the market for 62 days. In January 2021, the days on market for these luxury homes dropped to 37, and in January 2022, the days on market plummeted to 12.6

Buying a new home in the current market

Buying a new home in the current market is trickier than selling, especially if you wish to downsize, as the demand is even greater for lower-priced homes. Using Atlanta again as an example, detached homes with three bedrooms, 2,001 to 2,500 square feet, and a sales price of between $350,000 and $599,999 stayed on the market for 51 days in January 2020, 28 days in January 2021, and only nine days in January 2022.6 It is notable that in some markets, homes have been selling in just a matter of hours after being listed.7

At this lower price point, Atlanta Realtors are reporting multiple offers, sometimes as many as 30, for one property, and winning bids are often selling for well over asking price. The picture isn't much different at this price point for attached homes (townhouses and condos), which were on the market for 70 days in January 2020, 43 days in January 2021 and 13 days in January 2022.6