by Calculated Risk on 6/23/2022 03:01:00 PM

Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report released yesterday from Chief Economist Danielle Hale: Weekly Housing Trends View — Data Week Ending June 18, 2022. Note: They have data on list prices, new listings and more, but this focus is on inventory.

• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were up 6% above one year ago. Home sellers in many markets across the country continue to benefit from rising home prices and fast-selling homes. That’s prompted a growing number of homeowners to sell homes this year compared to last, giving home shoppers much needed options. We’ve seen more homes come up for sale this year compared to last year in 11 of the last 12 weeks.

• Active inventory continued to grow, rising 21% above one year ago. Inventory was roughly even with last year’s levels at the beginning of May and the gains have mounted each week. Still, our May Housing Trends Report showed that the active listings count remained nearly 50 percent below its level at the beginning of the pandemic. In other words, we’re starting to add more options, but the market needs even more before home shoppers have a selection that’s roughly equivalent to the pre-pandemic housing market.

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

Note the rapid increase in the YoY change, from down 30% at the beginning of the year, to up 21% YoY now. It will be important to watch if that trend continues.

Also note the possible pickup in new listings.  This is something I highlighted in Final Look at Local Housing Markets in May