SEATTLE-Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered brokerage, recently released its Real-Time Fastest Markets Report for May 2013, showing a slight slowdown in the U.S. housing market. The report ranks 22 markets across the country by the percentage of homes for sale that went under contract within 14 days of their debut.
Thirty-two percent of homes went under contract within two weeks of their debut in May, a drop of 1.2 percentage points from April. This is the largest decrease since December 2012. For the same time period, 20% of homes went under contract within one week, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points.
One likely contributor to the slowdown was an increase in homes for sale. Inventory grew 4.2% from April to May and 6.4% from March to April. Rising interest rates that occurred between May and June might mean further slowdowns are ahead. Redfin analysts are closely monitoring interest rates in conjunction with the company's proprietary homebuyer demand data. Initial conclusions suggest that homebuyers already in the market are being more aggressive in their pursuit for a home, while buyers at the very beginning of the process might be discouraged from entering the market.

Other findings for May:

-- San Jose (Silicon Valley), CA was the fastest-moving market, with 58% of
new listings going under contract within two weeks on the market.
-- Philadelphia was the slowest market, with 9% of homes going under
contract within two weeks, followed by the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham),
NC, with 11% of homes selling that quickly.
-- The six fastest markets were all in California, followed by Denver,
where 48% of listings went under contract within two weeks.
-- The San Jose, CA and Chicago markets slowed the most last month, with
the rate of homes going under contract in 14 days in Chicago falling
from 23.8% in April to 14.6% in May. San Jose dropped from
64.0% to 57.7 %.
-- San Diego led the nation with the largest month-over-month increase in
the rate of homes going under contract in 14 days, increasing from 46.7
percent in April to 50.
-- All 22 markets were still in seller's market territory, defined by
having less than six months of supply. San Jose, CA had less than one
month of supply.
The market in May, while moderating slightly, still moved so fast that many homes sold before ever appearing on the most popular real estate portal sites. This report also includes an analysis of 10,000 broker-listed homes for sale that went under contract within one week. It found that 46% of these homes never appeared as active listings on Zillow.com, while an additional 16% appeared only after the home had gone under contract.