The Week Ahead: Insight on Housing Inventory

Realtor.com will be releasing its Housing Inventory Core Metric Report on Tuesday. 

Prior reports found that the national inventory fell 15.7% annually in March, which is faster than the 15.3% year-over-year drop reported in February.

This equates to a loss of 191,000 listings compared to March 2019. Realtor.com added the year-over-year decline in inventory could be “softening,” which the report says could be an early indicator of slowing buyer activity due to COVID-19. 

The volume of newly-listed properties in March fell by 6.4% since last year and for newly-listed properties for the week ending on March 28 fell by 34% annually—the biggest decline this year. 

Housing inventory in the 50 largest U.S. metros declined by 17.1% year-over-year in March. The metro of Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, saw the largest decline in inventory at 42.2%. Only Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (3.6%) saw inventory increase over the year.

Realtor.com also reported the average property is selling quicker than last year, as homes sold in 60 days in March, which is four days quicker than March 2019.

The average listing price grew by 3.8% to $320,000 in March, which is a slight drop from the prior month’s 3.9% annual growth. However, prices for the week ending on March 28 grew by just 2.5% year-over-year—the slowest pace of growth this year and the slowest since data has been tracked since 2013. 

An additional forecast from NerdWallet expects mortgage rates to fall below the levels of March, possibly settling in around 3.5%, or lower, through April. 

“Low and steady rates would please home buyers, too—those who brave the housing market during an epidemic,” the report said. 

 

Here's what else is happening in The Week Ahead:

DS5: Inside the Industry 

Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (May 7)

Unemployment Rate (May 8)