by Calculated Risk on 11/30/2023 02:31:00 PM

Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report: Weekly Housing Trends View — Data Week Ending Nov 25, 2023

• Active inventory increased slightly, with for-sale homes 1.8% above year ago levels.

Active listings exceeded last year’s levels again this week, growing by a slightly higher rate than previous week (+1.8% year-over-year vs +1.5%). However, active inventory has now fallen below its peak of 758,000 listings two weeks ago, to 741,000 this past week.

• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were up this week, by 8.9% from one year ago.

New listings registered lower than prior year levels from mid-2022 through roughly 5 weeks ago, as the mortgage rate lock-in effect froze homeowners with low-rate existing mortgages in place. More recently the trend has reversed as new listings during the week outpaced the same week in the previous year by 8.9%, the largest increase since summer 2021. With the number of homes for sale already limited, a pick up in new listings is a welcome change to recent inventory woes. However, the pace of new listings is still 16.9% below typical pre-pandemic levels.

Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com. 

Inventory was up year-over-year for the 2rd consecutive week following 20 consecutive weeks with a YoY decrease in inventory.  

Inventory is still historically very low.

New listings really collapsed a year ago, so the YoY comparison for new listings is easier now - and although new listings also remain about 17% below "typical pre-pandemic levels", new listings are now up YoY.