New Home SalesCENSUS
886K
U.S. Housing Market · 1998
U.S. Housing Market in 1998
sub-7% rates1990s boom peakfirst 4.9M+ year
Existing SalesNAR
4.97M
Median PriceNAR
$128,400
30Y MortgagePMMS
6.94%
1998 saw existing-home sales cross 4.97M — an all-time high to that point — as 30-year mortgage rates fell below 7% for the first time since 1971.
The 1990s expansion was reaching the housing market. Median existing prices hit $128,400, up 6.0% YoY. New construction reached 886K, the highest since 1978. The Federal Reserve's late-1998 rate cut (in response to the LTCM collapse) added a final push that would carry sales higher for two more years before the dot-com slowdown.