Time for your monthly dive into the housing market trends for August 2023. Let’s break it down in a more casual, easy-to-digest manner:
Homes Up for Grabs: There were 7.9% fewer homes up for sale compared to last year. Yep, it’s a bit of a decrease.
Total Unsold Homes: Now, if you count all the homes that are up for grabs, including those under contract but not sold yet, that number dropped by 9.2% compared to last year.
Sellers Taking It Easy: Home sellers seemed to be taking it easy this August. There were 7.5% fewer newly listed homes compared to the same time last year.
Price Check: After dipping for a couple of months, the median price of homes for sale decided to increase by 0.7% compared to last year. It’s like a rollercoaster ride!
Time on the Market: Homes hung around on the market for about 46 days this August. That’s 5 days longer than last year but still shorter than the pre-COVID times.
So, what’s the scoop? According to Realtor.com’s August data, home prices are back on the upswing, thanks to low inventory, even though demand has been a bit low due to those pesky rising mortgage rates. After seeing some dips in June and July, August seems to be the turning point. The median list price for homes across the nation stayed steady compared to last year.
Newly Listed Homes: There’s some hope on the horizon! We saw a little bump in newly listed homes in August compared to July. Maybe sellers are gearing up for the fall season, which is usually a great time to buy.
Inventory Crunch: But hold on, the overall number of homes up for grabs was 7.9% less than last year. It’s been shrinking for two months in a row now. This drop is partly because we had a weird spike in inventory growth last summer. In August, inventory did go up a bit compared to July, but it’s still way lower than the usual levels from 2017 to 2019.
Pending Listings: The number of homes under contract but not sold (we call them pending listings) dropped by 11.5% compared to last year. That’s less of a decline compared to July, but it’s an improvement from last December’s nosedive. Home sales have slowed a bit, declining 2.2% from June to July.
New Listings: While there were still fewer newly listed homes compared to last year, the rate of decline improved. In July, it was a whopping 20.8%, but in August, it was down to 7.5%. Some of this improvement is because listing activity was slowing down late last summer as sellers held off, thanks to lower mortgage rates.
Metro Areas: In the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S., inventory dropped by 13.0% compared to last year. In fact, inventory in these metros is a whopping 45.0% below pre-pandemic levels. The South held up the best with only a 1.5% decline, while the West took the biggest hit at 31.5%.
Time on the Market: Homes spent about 46 days on the market in August, which is only 5 days longer than last year. Not too shabby, right? Buyers are still competing for fewer options than before, which is why time on the market is catching up.
Price Tags: The median list price dropped a bit in August, down to $435,000 from July’s $440,000. But, compared to last year, it’s still up by 0.7%. This is partly because there aren’t enough homes to go around, and even though new home sales are up, we’re not building enough to keep up with demand.
Mortgage Rates: Here’s the kicker – higher mortgage rates this August made financing 80% of homes about $417 more expensive per month compared to last year. Ouch! Wage growth and inflation couldn’t keep up with that.
Price Reductions: Fewer homes had price reductions this year compared to last year. So, sellers and buyers seem to be on the same page when it comes to price expectations.
Metropolitan Markets: In the largest metropolitan areas in the country, listing prices are still going up on average, especially in the Northeastern metros, where they’re growing at a rate of 9.7% over the past year. But remember, the types of homes listed can change, so prices per square foot are a bit different.
Price Drops: Only six out of the largest 50 markets saw their median list price decline, down from 12 last month. The greatest year-over-year price declines were seen in Austin, Dallas, and Phoenix.
Phew, that’s a lot of numbers! But there you have it – the housing market’s August adventures in a nutshell. Stay tuned for more market updates next month! 🏡📈 #HousingTrends #MarketWatch
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