The typical US home could cost $1 million by 2050, according to an economist

• Data from NAR shows the median sale price of an existing home was $429,300 in June.
• The median single-family home sale price could hit $1 million by 2050, according to an economist.
• The climb to $1 million will be slow, so buyers should expect modest price gains for now, they said.

Yun said those cities are outliers in a national real estate market still defined by climbing prices and soft demand.

“Places like Austin, or any local market, will deviate from national trends for some time. But Austin’s price decline is pretty much due to the fact that it had a spectacular run-up,” he said. “One wonders, after a little pause in Austin, whether it will begin to show that superstar status again.”

Yun said it will take years of steady gains for the US median single-family home sale price to reach $1 million. For now, he expects prices to rise only moderately.

“In the short term, I think home prices will see a very minimal gain this year — maybe 1%, 2%, or 3% nationwide,” he said. “That would be below consumer price inflation and below income growth, since incomes are rising around 3% to 4%. I think home-price growth coming in slightly below income growth is a healthy thing.”