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The U.S. housing market has been plagued by a severe inventory shortage for years, which has driven up prices and exacerbated the homebuying crisis.
But new data shows that more homes are currently for sale than at any time since the pandemic began, which some economists say is an encouraging sign that the housing market may be on the road to recovery.
A “Home For Sale” sign in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC, United States, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. U.S. housing inventory has reached its highest level in years. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Realtor.com’s July Housing Report Statistics released Thursday showed the number of homes actively for sale nationwide increased 36.6% last month compared to the same month a year ago, but still remained 28.6% lower than July 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Home prices hit another record high in May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index released earlier this week, but the percentage of listings that were reduced in price reached 18.9% last month, the highest rate since October, according to a new report from Realtor.com.
Meredith Whitney, founder and CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, said home prices have risen more than 30% during the “Clamant Countdown.”
“In addition to inventory levels rising to levels not seen since before the pandemic, buyers are also finding that sellers are discounting prices on many more homes than they were last year,” said Ralph McLaughlin, senior economist at Realtor.com. “These are signs that the housing market is recovering from an unhealthy state and becoming more balanced.”
Below are the cities that saw the biggest inventory increases last month:
1. Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington, had the highest year-over-year growth in housing inventory of any U.S. city last month. (iStock/iStock)
Seattle saw the highest inventory growth of any other U.S. city last month, up 37.3% from a year ago.
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According to Realtor.com, there are currently 2,867 homes for sale in the city, with an average price of $818,000.
2. San Jose, California
San Jose ranked second on the list with a 30.8% increase in home listings in July compared to the same month last year.
There are currently 1,355 homes for sale in this California city, with an average listing price of $1.29 million.
3. Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio, had the third-highest residential property growth of any U.S. city last month. (iStock/iStock)
Columbus saw the third-highest growth in residential listings last month, with an annualized increase of 17.4%.
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There are currently 3,059 homes for sale in the city, with an average listing price of $309,000.
FOX Business’ Megan Henney contributed to this report.
