Signs Show Sellers Are Entering The Market

Sep 3

Activity shows that more homes are getting listed on the market for sale

The real estate market today can pose some challenges for buyers to locate available homes for purchase as supply has not been keeping up with demand. However, per a recent report shared from Realtor.com, signs are beginning to show that sellers are gradually starting to return to the market.

Javier Vivas, Director of Economic Research at Realtor.com states: “Seller confidence has been improving gradually after reaching its bottom in mid-April, and now it appears to have reached an important recovery milestone…After five long months, sellers are back in the housing market; while encouraging, the improvement to new listings is only the first step in the long road to solving low inventory issues keeping many buyers at bay.”

While more homes are beginning to get listed for sale the total inventory is still below where we need to see it satisfy buyer demand. Housing stock is good to satisfy about 4 months at the current sales pace but really we would need enough for 6 months for things to be put into balance. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) explains:

“Total housing inventory at the end of June totaled 1.57 million units, up 1.3% from May, but still down 18.2% from one year ago (1.92 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 4.0-month supply at the current sales pace, down from both 4.8 months in May and from the 4.3-month figure recorded in June 2019.”

For sellers, now is a prime time to enter the market as chances are that competition in their area is still fairly low. Most homeowners will not want to wait until more sellers list as buyer options will be more abundant and as the case is in many regions the fall market can be a time when market activity increases.

For buyers, the reports of more inventory coming in is a sigh of relief as there will be more to choose from in their searches. Record low mortgage rates continue to stay at unheard of levels which makes now a great time to embark on a home purchase.

Ultimately housing inventory still needs to improve to meet buyer demand but we see things trending in a positive direction. For anyone contemplating a move in the near future, now is n ideal time to reach out to your real estate professionals and discuss the local market.