Housing inventory rose again in May, a Realtor.com report showed, as high costs keep buyers on the sidelines. Key Takeaways
-
Housing inventory around the country continues to grow as high prices and borrowing costs slow sales, a Realtor.com report found.
-
In places like Seattle and Denver, there are more houses available for sale than there were in 2019, before the Covid pandemic.
-
While median housing prices were about the same as last year at $440,000, 19% of sellers cut prices on their home--the highest share since 2016.
It’s not a buyers’ market yet for house hunters, but the available inventory in some cities has jumped even higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to one report.
Nationwide, the number of houses for sale is still lower than the pre-pandemic averages, but Realtor.com's May housing report showed that inventory levels rose for the 19th straight month and were more than 30% higher than the same period last year.
Where The Rebounds Are
And in places like Seattle, Dallas and Austin, Texas, the number of homes for sale is more than 50% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Inventory in Denver is double what it was before Covid. Indeed, 22 of the top 50 metro areas now have more inventory than they did in 2019, the report showed. Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said it showed that inventory levels were beginning to realign after several years of unaffordable conditions.
“In some areas, affordability concerns have also slowed buyer demand, giving the market room to breathe and contributing to gains in [the number of] homes for sale,” Hale said. “In general, we're seeing strong inventory rebounds in metros that have built more in the last 6 years.”
Although inventory levels are improving, Hale said that there is a still a 4.6 month supply of housing available nationwide, below the level of 6 months that generally defines a buyers’ market.
Housing Supply ‘Piles Up’ in Some Places as Sales Stall
The gains in inventory are the byproduct of a housing market that has been too expensive for most Americans to afford, Hale said. With few houses to choose from, home buyers have been facing higher prices as sellers are able to charge more amid competition among buyers. Meanwhile, high mortgage rates are keeping other potential home buyers on the sideline.
All of this has led to an inventory “pile up” in some areas, as more houses sit on the market for longer, Hale said. It’s also helped spur homebuilders to construct more houses to meet the demand.
“This milestone underscores both the importance of enabling housing construction and the growing divide in housing conditions across regions, where some markets are rapidly normalizing and others remain stuck in low-supply dynamics," Hale said.
繼續閱讀Supplies may be higher but sales are not; they fell by 2.5% in May when compared with last year as mortgage rates pushed near 7% during that month, the report showed.
Higher inventory levels haven’t pushed prices lower either. The typical listing price in May was $440,000, flat from a year-ago. However, 19% of home sellers did drop their prices that month, the highest level of price cuts since 2016.
Read the original article on Investopedia
