More Homes for Sale May Signal Shift to Buyers Market

A buyer-friendly housing market may be on the horizon as the number of houses actively for sale grew again in June while the median home spent two more days on the market compared with last year at 45 days.

According to Realtor.com’s June Housing Report, there were 36.7% more homes actively for sale on a typical day in June compared with the same time in 2023, marking the eighth consecutive month of annual inventory growth after a 17-month streak of decline.

The market appears to have stabilized as mortgage rates have stabilized due to better-than-expected CPI readings, the report said. Listing activity has been more sensitive to changes in mortgage rates because many sellers are themselves homebuyers and have a current mortgage with a rate well below today’s market rate. Eighty-seven percent of outstanding mortgage loans are at a sub-6% rate, said the report. The decrease in mortgage rates in June likely contributed to an increased pace of growth in listing activity, and selling activity should continue to normalize as rates inch down, predicted Realtor.com.

Inventory grew in all four regions of the country year over year, but the South and the West led inventory growth with increases of 48.7% and 36.5% respectively. Midwest markets had inventory growth of 21% and the Northeast had an inventory increase of 11.8%. Despite this, most metros still had a lower level of inventory when compared with pre-pandemic years. Metros that saw the most inventory growth included Tampa (+93.1%), Orlando (+81.5%) and Denver (+77.9%).

Some sellers are responding to the market shift by cutting prices more frequently but most are staying in the market, Realtor.com noted. The share of listings that were delisted was slightly higher than last year but has recently declined to 5.7% at the end of the first half of the year.

The Northeast led the country in list price growth at 5.9%, followed by the Midwest at 3% growth and the West at 1.3% growth. Cleveland, Philadelphia and Providence had the biggest increases in list price growth. Prices fell in the South by 1.9% year over year in large part due to inventory growth, according to Realtor.com.

Time spent on the market increased for the third straight month, but all regions recorded time on the market below pre-pandemic levels. Compared with the typical June in 2017 to 2019, homes spent eight days less on the market in the South, 10 days less in the Midwest and 15 days less in the Northeast. In Western metros, days on the market was only one day less compared with the typical June from 2017 to 2019.