“This week’s data shows the housing market is continuing to warm up as economies reopen and more buyers return to the streets, but with COVID cases increasing in some regions uncertainty still remains,” said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for realtor.com®. “The pace of home sales also showed the first substantial signs of improvement in anticipation of the summer season. It’s unlikely we’ll see the national pace of sales return to normal this year, but we should see home closings accelerate in the coming weeks — and peak later than usual this summer.”
- Local Index Recovery: Miami, Philadelphia, Rochester N.Y., and Jacksonville FL crossed the recovery benchmark this week, taking the total number of markets above the January baseline to 10, the highest number since the onset of COVID. The overall recovery index is showing greatest recovery in Seattle, Denver, Boston, Jacksonville, Fla., and Philadelphia. Regionally, the West (index 99.6) continues to lead the recovery with the overall index now essentially at the January benchmark. The South (index 93.9), which led the early recovery, is beginning to lag relative to other regions, with both the Northeast and Midwest (index 94.5 and index 93.6) catching up. See full list of metros below.
- Time on market is now just 13 days slower than last year. While it still takes longer to find a buyer and complete a sale compared to this time last year, the gap is shrinking as buyers return and are forced to move faster to compete for a limited number of homes for sale.
- New listings are down 19 percent. Buyer interest in the housing market has more than fully recovered. In comparison, the pace of sellers coming back to the market is lagging. This is helping to keep the balance between market components, such as price and time on market. But new listings are a crucial pre-cursor to home sales, particularly in an inventory-light market, so productivity of the summer season really comes down to how many homes are listed.
- Median listing prices are now growing at 5.6 percent over last year, more than a percentage point above pre-COVID pace.
- Total inventory is down 29 percent. The number of homes for sale continues to decline faster than last year because buyers outnumber sellers in this unusual summer season
source:Ciston
