Have you ever heard that a home is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it? In today’s market, that’s good news for sellers.

CNBC recently reported that according to Zillow, a real estate listing company, the median value of all homes in the United States in June surpassed $200,000. That’s a seven-percent increase over just one year ago.

Determining the value of a home isn’t easy to do. There are many factors involved including location, condition, the lot size, design, etc.

The National Association of Realtors reported the median sale price of a U.S. home at well over $200,000 for more than a year, but that measure reflected only homes sold, not every house in every neighborhood that exists in America.

Why are sales prices up? The value of homes is increasing but that’s not the only reason why. Another reason is because of the shortage of low-priced homes. More people are now buying pricier homes because that’s what is available. That pushes the median price up.

The inventory of homes for sale was down more than 11 percent in June, year over year, according to Zillow, with steeper drops in big markets like San Francisco (minus 26 percent), Minneapolis-St. Paul (down 30 percent), Washington, D.C. (down 20 percent) and Seattle (minus 24 percent).

According to CNBC, the city of Dallas, which has good supply of homes for sale, is seeing home values more than 10 percent higher compared with a year ago because of an increasingly strong local economy and job market. In contrast, Baltimore, which saw a big drop in inventory (minus 21 percent) is only seeing values about 4 percent higher because of a weaker local economy.

I’ll continue to keep my eye on these trends. When you’re ready to get approved and get into this competitive market, I’d love to be the one to help you out!