Home prices have hit a record-high growth of 12.9% over the last year. Yet the higher prices aren’t scaring buyers. Homes are still selling quickly—nearly two weeks faster than they did last year.

The U.S. median home price remained near its summer peak of $350,000 during the first week of October and has shown no signs of cooling, according to realtor.com®’s Weekly Housing Report, reflecting the week ending Oct. 3.

“While buyers would normally begin to hunker down this time of year, we expect to see an unusually high number remain in the market this fall,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “This gives sellers a rare opportunity to get top dollar for their home outside of the prime selling season, which may be motivating some to stay in the market. However, even with record-breaking prices, we’re not seeing sellers rush into the market with the same eagerness as buyers. Looking forward, a key question is whether this frenzied demand will continue into the spring or if we’ll see more balance between home buyers and sellers.”

Typically, during the fall months, sellers tend to lower their prices to entice a smaller pool of buyers. This year has bucked that trend, realtor.com® notes.

Inventories remain tight. The number of homes on the market has plunged 38% compared to last year. Sellers remain reluctant to list their homes.

@ realtor.com

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New homes are being built on smaller lots. The median lot size for single-family homes that sold in 2019 dropped to 0.188 of an acre (or 8,177 square feet)—the smallest on record, according to Census Bureau data recently analyzed by the National Association of Home Builders.

Regional differences persist. For example, the median lot size in New England is three times as large as the national median. “New England is known for strict local zoning regulations that often require very low densities,” says Natalia Siniavskaia, assistant vice president for housing policy research at the NAHB, on the association’s Eye on Housing blog. “Therefore, it is not surprising that single-family detached spec homes started in New England are built on some of the largest lots in the nation, with more than half of the lots exceeding half an acre.”

Meanwhile, the Pacific region—which includes California and Washington—tends to have higher densities, and developed land is scarce. Lots in that area tend to be the smallest in the U.S., with half of the lots smaller than 0.15 acres.

The analysis is limited to single-family detached speculatively built homes. Custom homes built on the owner’s land tend to be on larger lots. The median lot size for custom single-family detached homes started in 2019 is about 1 acre.

Seventy percent of Americans say they are optimistic that major cities will bounce back post-COVID-19, according to findings from a new survey of 1,000 adults nationwide from AceableAgent.com, an online real estate education program.

“Today, the new work-from-home culture is shifting real estate markets, with states like Florida and Texas experiencing an influx in residents,” says Laura Adams, analyst at AceableAgent.com. “While we are optimistic that New York City and other major metropolitan areas will ultimately recover, there will undoubtedly be pandemic aftereffects impacting both cities and suburbs for years to come.”

New York was hit hard by the pandemic, with nearly 20,000 deaths from March to May 2020. New Yorkers are reportedly leaving the city for the suburbs and rural communities.

Nationwide, 37% of Americans said the pandemic has caused them to consider moving. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said that for 2021, they prefer to live in a suburb over a city. But that doesn’t mean they’ll always shun the city. Respondents said they’re putting less emphasis on “proximity to work” and are instead desiring “more living space,” which tends to be more plentiful in the suburbs. Many survey respondents said they’re looking for more square footage, larger outdoor areas, lower population density, and increased affordability, according to the AceableAgent.com study.

But once the pandemic has subsided, housing analysts believe people will want to live in city centers again for the proximity to fine dining, luxury shopping, and nightlife just blocks away. “Real estate experts are optimistic that the economic fallout of the pandemic will not have a severe negative impact on the housing market,” the report notes.

Barclays Capital recently called the death of the city “a myth.” “Despite widely reported speculation about a collapse in demand for urban living—likely spurred by the outsize attention given to New York City and San Francisco—our data suggests that people left urban areas, but at a more modest pace than media reports might suggest,” Ryan Preclaw, a lead author in equity research at Barclays in New York, wrote in a recent report released Sept. 29.

Cities may be underperforming in their housing markets compared to the suburbs in recent months—which is in contrast to recent years, when urban areas outpaced suburbs in home price gains. But Preclaw notes that real estate prices are likely to rise across the board. However, “urban areas are at risk of losing their long stretch of outperformance,” he says.

Some residents who left big cities in the pandemic may not come back, but Preclaw predicts most will. Nevertheless, Barclays estimates that any fleeing of urban areas could bump up housing demand: Up to 500,000 new housing units could be needed even if just up to 2% people permanently relocate from urban areas, the report says.

A sanitizing butler and UV robots are helping to take cleanliness to a new level in the home. Mudrooms are being rebranded as “disinfection rooms,” Forbes.com reports. Homeowners and their guests are using these newly defined spaces to help remove the spread of germs inside their homes.

What does a “disinfection room” contain? Hand sanitizer and hand-washing stations, and some owners are also adding machines that cover your shoes with temporary shoe covers, along with gowns to wear over your clothes. Copper-based metals—including brass—are being used within the design for their self-sterilizing powers. Copper ions are natural antimicrobials that destroy viruses and bacteria. Read more: Why Copper May Become Your Favorite Metal in the Pandemic

Make a Plan With Sellers to Sanitize Listings

Apartment buildings are jumping on the “disinfection” trend to keep residents safer during the pandemic and to help prevent the spread of germs among residents and guests. For example, they’re turning to COVID-19-killing robots—devices that use UV-C lights to kill germs in common areas, such as elevators and package rooms, and even in some personal residences (upon request). The robots can cost about $125,000 each. Also, the UV light must come into contact with the specific surface to kill viruses and bacteria.

The Continuum on South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., has taken several actions to increase disinfection in its apartment building. For example, it’s offering a sanitizing butler to disinfect beachfront furniture and table surfaces after each use. The butler can disinfect lounge chair cushions using a special sanitizing formula. The Continuum is also requiring residents to book appointments to use its workout facility. Between appointments, staff ensures the gym is disinfected before the next guest arrives. Also, all guests must have their temperature taken at an automated health kiosk before they can enter the building. The building also uses wands that can emit UV-C light for cleaning.

Multifamily buildings are now being built with disinfection in mind. For example, the Legacy Hotel & Residence at Miami Worldcenter—a 55-story, $500 million tower—will include “several touchless technologies, antimicrobial materials, hospital-grade air purification, and filtration systems throughout,” the developer told Forbes.com. It’ll also include a 100,000-square-foot medical center.

The pandemic is motivating more millennials to feel like they’re finally ready to buy a home. But do they have the savings to do it?

Seventy-four percent of millennials—ages 25 to 40—recently surveyed by Point2Homes say they are interested in purchasing a home in the next 12 months. However, 88% say they have significantly less savings than the average national down payment amount, which is $62,600, according to the study. Fourteen percent of millennials surveyed admit they have nothing saved up for a home.

Certainly, down payment programs exist for those in need of help. But whether these programs will be sufficient for home shoppers whose savings are so tight is doubtful, financial experts say. Down payments of 0% and 5% are possible with a home purchase, but they tend to come at higher costs.

Forty percent of the millennials surveyed say they set aside 10% or less of their income for a down payment. What’s more, 40% of respondents believe that savings of $10,000 or less would be enough to buy a home. “But even if they’re considering 0%, 3%, or 5% down payment mortgages, very few of the 100 largest cities in the country have houses for sale that are spacious enough to meet millennials’ pandemic-induced demands,” the researchers note.

Those millennials who hope to buy a home of their own may be able to save more as they move back in with their families—an increasingly popular trend since the pandemic. “The coronavirus outbreak has pushed millions of Americans, especially young adults, to move in with family members,” the survey notes. “The share of 18- to 29-year-olds living with their parents has become a majority since U.S. coronavirus cases began spreading early this year, surpassing the previous peak during the Great Depression era.” The number living with parents grew to 26.6 million, an increase of 2.6 million from February. Assuming these young adults still have jobs, they may be able to ramp up their savings more for a down payment to eventually buy a home of their own.

The pandemic has prompted homeowners to reevaluate where they call home. Sears Home Services recently surveyed about 1,000 people nationwide on how they feel about home since the pandemic and the results show a growing dissatisfaction. Forty-four percent of respondents said they are less satisfied with their home since the beginning of the pandemic.

“There’s a sense of feeling ‘trapped’ when it’s required to remain inside; we’re missing the venues we used to frequent and perhaps noticing flaws of the home while spending more time there,” the survey notes.

Households with children all living in smaller spaces are more likely to be linked to owners’ dissatisfaction. Homeowners with children were 10 percentage points more likely to say they felt less satisfied with their home than those without. Also, homeowners with only one or two bedrooms were more likely to report being unsatisfied with their homes.

The growing dissatisfaction among homeowners after being hunkered down may be a big factor behind the surging housing market. Contract signings on homes surged to a record high in August and are now 24% higher than a year ago, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 42% of respondents say it’s more difficult to find “alone time” inside their home. Seventy-nine percent of respondents admitted to telling a lie in order to just get alone time at home. People with children were more likely to tell a lie for that reason. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they used their alone time to work on a home improvement project. Studies have linked home improvement with helping people feel a sense of enjoyment and offering a boost to their mental health.

Survey respondents said the four top features they most want to add to their homes are a home gym (41%), home office (37%), gaming space (32%), and kitchen space (31%).

“The more time you spend with something, the more you get to know it,” the survey notes. “With much of the world spending a highly unusual amount of time at home, we’re finding the things we want to improve but also benefiting more from those improvements.”