Realtor.com Reports Active Inventory UP YoY

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 11, 2023

• Active inventory increased slightly, with for-sale homes 0.6% above year ago levels.

For 20 straight weeks, the number of homes available for sale registered below that of the previous year. However, active listings exceeded last year’s levels this week, reversing the recent trend.

• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were up this week, by 6.4% from one year ago.

Since mid-2022, new listings have registered lower than prior year levels, as the mortgage rate lock-in effect freezes homeowners with low-rate existing mortgages in place. Over the last three weeks, however, the trend has reversed as new listings during the week outpaced the same week in the previous year by 6.4%, a jump relative to the previous week.

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

Inventory was up 0.6% year-over-year 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 historically very low, new listings are now up YoY.