Home and condominium sales profit margins hit nearly 50% in the third quarter as sellers continued to cash in after multiple years of rapid price appreciation.
Typical home sales netted $123,100 in raw profit, up 1.9% from the second quarter but down 3.5% from a year ago, according to the 2025 U.S. Home Sales Report from real estate market analytics firm Attom.
The figures illustrate how the housing market heading into 2026 has moderated from pandemic-era home price peaks, when typical profit margins exceeded 60% in mid-2022.
“Profit margins remained steady and high throughout the traditionally busier summer selling season,” noted Rob Barber, CEO of Attom, in a press release.
Home sellers piled into the market during the summer but found lackluster demand from homebuyers, adding momentum to cooling trends in regional markets across the South and West.
Profit margins declined quarterly in 58.6% of the large metro areas Attom analyzed while declining in 84% of large metro areas annually.
However, home prices have continued to march higher, albeit at a slower pace than in recent quarters. Attom reported that the national median home sales price hit $370,000 in the third quarter, a 3% increase from September 2024.
As a result, third-quarter windfalls that typical sellers enjoyed still exceeded historical norms. Home sellers earned profits of around 30% prior to 2020 before surging during the pandemic.
Margins have steadied just below 50% for the past three quarters, according to Attom, with typical home sales profit margins of around 55% in the third quarter of 2024.
Among metro areas with populations over 1 million people, the largest typical home sale profit margins occurred in San Jose, Calif. (94.3%), Seattle (80.2%), Buffalo, N.Y. (80%), Rochester, N.Y. (77.3%) and Hartford, Conn. (75%).
After New Orleans (19.6%), Texas was home to most of the major metro areas that saw the lowest third-quarter home sales profit margins, with San Antonio (22.8%), Houston (30%), Austin (31.8%) and Dallas (33.5%) tracking historic national norms but lagging recent highs.
Third-quarter home sales data also revealed homeownership tenure — the time between a home’s purchase and its sale — stretching to its longest duration in 25 years.
Homes sold in the third quarter had been held for an average of 8.39 years, up from 8.13 years for homes sold in the second quarter, seven years in the third quarter of 2014, and closer to four years in the third quarter of 2004.
