It is little secret that the housing market is extremely tight. The good news, for buyers at least, is that a new survey suggests that more homes could be headed for the market.
The bad news? These new units will likely not nudge the needle that much. The latest realtor.com data from the week of April 17 shows that the national inventory of homes was 53% below the same time in 2020. Compared with the 2017 to 2019 period, March 2021 saw about 117,000 fewer new listings.
The net effect of this diminished inventory is bidding wars. Median listing prices have jumped 17.2% year-over-year with 36 consecutive weeks of double-digit gains. These price increases have hurt first-time buyers, with a recent realtor.com survey finding that over 40% of them spent over a year shopping for a home.
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Leslie Shaver
Les Shaver has been covering commercial and residential real estate for almost 20 years. His work has appeared in Multifamily Executive, Builder, units, Arlington Magazine in addition to GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum.
