Tampa Leads Housing Markets With Largest Price Reductions

The best time to sell a home this year is between April 14 and April 20, according to Realtor.com, and its new report shows an optimistic mix of data for buyers.

There’s an increase in inventory and an uptick in price reductions going into the spring with 34 out of the 50 largest metros showing an uptick in drops – the largest share of falling home prices since 2019.

Realtor.com’s March Housing Report showed the percentage of homes with price reductions increased to 15% and the total number of homes actively for sale grew by 23.5% compared to last March.

Homes for sale remain well below pre pandemic levels.

Danielle Hale, Chief Economist of Realtor.com, said in prepared remarks that sellers are starting to warm up to the current environment, wading into the mgarket in increasing numbers despite market mortgage rates that are likely above their existing rate, if they have a mortgage.

“As a result, data shows surprisingly competitive pricing trends among sellers, especially in the lead up to this year’s best time to sell, which Realtor.com reported will be between April 14 and 20.

“As seller optimism swells, we may see even further inventory gains later in the season that will likely create a more balanced environment for hopeful homebuyers.”

Here are Realtor.com’s list of the 10 metro areas with the largest share of price reductions of total inventory: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (27.6%); Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Ariz. (23%); Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas (22.3%); Jacksonville, Fla. (22.1%); San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas (21.8%); Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla. (20.2%); Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Ore.-Wash. (20.1%); Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla. (19.7%); Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (19.5%); and Memphis, Tenn.-Miss.-Ark. (19.3%).

Price reduction levels were highest in the South – up 3.5 percentage points. They were up 1 percentage point in the Midwest, 0.5 percentage points in the Northeast, and +0.2 percentage points in the West.

Sellers turned out in higher numbers this March as newly listed homes were 15.5% above last year’s levels. This marked the fifth month of increasing listing activity after a 17-month streak of decline.

Home selling sentiment again showed improvement with the net share of respondents saying that now is a good time to sell increased by 11 percentage points in February over the previous month and 20 percentage points over the same month last year, according to Fannie Mae.

Newly listed homes in the 50 largest metro areas increased by 11.6% compared with the previous year in March, on average.

In March, 48 of the 50 largest metros on the Realtor.com list saw new listings increase over the previous year. The metros that saw the largest growth in newly listed homes included Sacramento (+32.5%), Tampa (+29.3%), and San Diego (+25.9%). The two that had yet to catch up were Richmond (-9.4%) and New Orleans (-4.8%).

Multifamily Spring:

Multifamily Spring is coming to New York City this April 18. This year’s program will bring together the industry’s most influential and knowledgeable real estate executives from the multifamily sector for 5 hours of face-to-face networking and over 5.5 hours of can’t miss sessions. Learn more or register here.