by Calculated Risk on 6/27/2024 03:47:00 PM

What this means: On a weekly basis, Realtor.com reports the year-over-year change in active inventory and new listings. On a monthly basis, they report total inventory. For April, Realtor.com reported inventory was up 35.2% YoY, but still down almost 34% compared to April 2017 to 2019 levels. 

 Now - on a weekly basis - inventory is up 36.1% YoY.

Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report: Weekly Housing Trends View—Data for Week Ending June 22, 2024

• Active inventory increased, with for-sale homes 36.1% above year-ago levels.

For the 33rd week in a row, the number of for-sale homes grew compared with one year ago. This past week, the inventory of homes for sale grew by 36.1% compared with last year, essentially the same gap as in recent weeks. While recent inventory growth is substantial compared to a year ago, it highlights just how far inventory had fallen. Even after recent growth, active inventory in May was down more than 30% from typical pre-pandemic levels.

• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were up this week, by 7.4% from one year ago.

Seller activity is up compared to one year ago, but momentum has waned from recent weeks and earlier this year. Realtor.com analysis shows that 87% of outstanding mortgages have a rate below 6%. If these homeowners sell, they are relinquishing relatively inexpensive debt for today’s roughly 7% mortgage rates, a costly proposition. As rates ease, they will cause less drag on the ‘move or stay’ calculus, and we are likely to see an increase in seller interest.

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

Inventory was up year-over-year for the 32nd consecutive week.  

However, inventory is still historically low.

New listings remain below typical pre-pandemic levels although up year-over-year.