by calculated risk May 9, 2024 11:30:00 AM
What this means: Each week, Realtor.com reports year-over-year changes in active inventory and new listings. They report total inventory on a monthly basis. For April, visit Realtor.com report Inventories increased 30.4% year over year, but were still down almost 36% compared to April 2017-2019 levels.
realtor.com contains monthly and weekly data on the existing housing market. Here is their weekly report. Weekly Housing Trends View — Data for the week ending May 4, 2024
• Available inventory increased, and homes sold increased by 35.1% compared to the previous year
For the 26th week in a row, the number of homes for sale increased compared to the previous year, giving homebuyers more options. Sellers may also adjust their plans, with nearly three-quarters of potential sellers planning to buy a home as mortgage rates rise to new highs in 2024. But this year’s sellers may not be as deterred by market volatility, given the long time it took to go public (80% had been considering selling for one to three years).
• New listings, a measure of sellers putting their homes on the market, rose 3.6% this week compared to a year ago.
The number of new listings continued to rise, but the rate of increase slowed significantly compared to the double-digit surge seen in recent weeks. The slowdown highlighted the extent to which seller sentiment is influenced by mortgage rates.
With mortgage rates once again topping 7%, many home sellers may be inclined to postpone their sales efforts. If mortgage rates continue to rise, listing activity will continue to be constrained.
This is a graph showing year-on-year changes in inventory. realtor.com.
Inventories increased year-on-year for 26 consecutive weeks.
However, inventories are still very low by historical standards.
Although the number of new listings is up year over year, it remains below typical pre-pandemic levels.
