Real estate listings rose 18.7% year-over-year in June, the fastest growth rate recorded since July 2017, Realtor.com reports. The current level of growth amounts to an additional 98,000 homes for sale every day compared to a year ago, but levels of supply are still only half of what they were three years ago in June 2019.
Still, after years of a grueling supply deficit triggering fierce competition and record price growth, an upswing in inventory offers a glimmer of hope for buyers long deterred from home purchases due to affordability concerns. Going forward, home shoppers will have more leverage when negotiating list prices, and sellers are also expected to lower their asking rates in response to surging mortgage rates.
“The increase in the number of homes for sale in June is due to a couple of key factors: Namely, sellers are putting more homes up for sale than last year. In fact, we’re back to about as many sellers as we saw in a typical pre-pandemic market,” explains Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.
“At the same time, buyers have grown pickier as home prices and, more importantly, their monthly payment costs skyrocketed as mortgage rates surge,” says Hale. “We’re getting more supply of homes for sale just as demand is reaching a breaking point for many buyers, and this has led to a rapid rebalancing or reset of the housing market.”
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