The median sale price for a home in the Des Moines area in April was $244,358, the highest it has ever been, Des Moines Area Association of Realtors data shows.

“Price appreciation is certainly increasing at a pace much greater than wage appreciation,” Kim Bakey, CEO of HomeServices of Iowa, said during a recent Business Record forum. HomeServices of Iowa is Iowa Realty’s parent company.

While homeowners who are selling their houses are benefiting from the higher sale prices, the increases are adversely affecting first-time homebuyers, Bakey said.

The first-time homebuyers “are having to look deeper into savings. … It’s a bigger leap for them to get into an entry-level home today than it was in the past,” she said.

Just one-third, or 444, of the 1,322 houses sold in April were priced at $199,999 or less, association data shows. In April 2020, 43%, or 504, of the 1,169 houses that were sold were priced at $199,999 or less.

The median price of a house sold in April was 13.4% higher than a year ago and 4.3% higher than in March, according to the association.

Several things are fueling the increased prices of houses, Bakey and others have said. Interest rates for home mortgages remain near historic lows and the cost of materials for new home construction continues to rise.

In addition, fewer houses are on the market. In April, for instance, 1,755 were listed for sale. A year ago, 3,333 homes were for sale in the Greater Des Moines market, which includes Polk, Dallas, Warren, Jasper, Marion, Madison and Guthrie counties.

Houses in April sold in an average of 40 days; a year ago, houses sold in an average of 61 days.