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71 August 2025 J O U R N A L themortgagepoint.com August 2025 » Smaller Premiums for Newer Homes In 2024, homebuyers paid 11.8% more for a newer home (less than five years old), compared to the median home price, whereas in 2012, they paid 44.4% more. Meanwhile, they're not getting as big a discount for purchasing an older home. In 2024, the typical older home (30-plus years old) sold for 15% less than the median home price. In 2012, buyers paid 18.9% less. Why is the Price Gap Shrinking? • More affordable home types: Build- ers are constructing smaller, low- er-cost homes, such as townhouses, which now make up nearly 20% of new housing (a record high). • Construction in cheaper areas: More new homes are being built in tradition- ally affordable regions, such as the Sun Belt and Mountain West. Demand in some of these areas (like Florida and Texas) is now declining, causing home prices to fall and listings to surge. • Prices rising in older metros: Strong demand in areas with older housing stock, such as metros on the East Coast and in the Rust Belt, is helping to drive up prices of older homes. Regional Trends The typical home that sold in Buffalo in 2024 was 69 years old—the oldest among the 100 most populous metros with sufficient data that Redfin analyzed. Highlighting the lack of new inventory, only 2.6% of homes bought in Buffalo were less than five years old. Next came Pittsburgh, with a median home age of 68 years, followed by Syra- cuse, New York; Springfield, Massachu- setts; and Cleveland, Ohio—all of which had a median age of 65 years. There's a wide gap between the median price of newer homes and older homes in these metros, with homes over 30 years old typically selling for less than half the price of those built in the past five years. "Older homes may cost less upfront, but the cost of repairing or replacing big-ticket items can be a huge burden for buyers," said Jerry Quade, a Redfin Premier Agent in Cleveland. "We always take a close look at the plumbing and electrical systems, along with the concrete foundations and the roof. Most of the old homes in Cleveland have basements, so we also look for any signs of water intrusion. At the end of the day, getting a building inspection is critical." It's a very different story in Provo, Utah, where the typical home that sold last year was only six years old—the youngest of the metros Redfin analyzed. The price of an older home ($479,900) in Provo was nearly as high as that of a newer home ($490,000). Next on the young homes list were Austin, Texas; Boise City, Idaho; and San Antonio, Texas, where the median home that sold was eight years old. Austin is one of only four metros Redfin analyzed where the median price Metros with the oldest homes bought in 2024: Metros with the youngest homes bought in 2024: