As the summer home-buying season gets underway, median home prices are surging. They shot up 4.3% year over year as the number of homes for sale continued to dry up in the week ending June 6, according to a recent realtor.com® report.

That’s correct: Prices are going up despite this week’s announcement that the U.S. officially entered a recession in February. While that’s below the typical 5% to 6% annual price appreciation this time of year, it’s nearly back to what it was before the coronavirus pandemic.

Median prices were rising 4.5% in the first two weeks of March before the COVID-19 lockdowns began. Nationally, the median home list price was $330,000 in May, according to the most recent realtor.com data.

The culprit for the increasing prices: a lack of homes for sale and a rush of buyers. The total number of home listings on realtor.com was down 25% in the first week in June compared with the previous year—when there was also a housing shortage. In the first two weeks of March, listings had fallen 16% annually.

Source: What Recession? Summer Home-Buying Season Heats Up as Prices Rise | realtor.com®