Realtor.com Reports Active Inventory Up 33.0% YoY

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 August, Realtor.com reported inventory was up 5.8% YoY, but still down 26.4% compared to the 2017 to 2019 same month levels. 

 Now - on a weekly basis - inventory is up 33.0% 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 Sept. 14, 2024

• Active inventory increased, with for-sale homes 33.0% above year-ago levels

For the 45th consecutive week dating to November 2023, the number of listings for sale has grown year over year, and this week continues a string of growth rates in the mid-30% range that started in April. This is a slight decrease from last week’s gain of 33.4%. As we discussed above and below, it’s important to note that much of the increase in inventory is due to listings accumulating on a slow market rather than a surge in new listings.

• New listings—a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale—ticked up by 6.6% from one year ago

As the recent easing of mortgage rates kept encouraging many sellers to return to the market, the year-over-year growth in new listings continued this week. With mortgage rates nearly 1 percentage point lower than last year and the announcement of a rate cut, we expect sellers’ motivation to sell could continue to rise this fall. In addition, as rates are likely to be even lower in 2025, a larger increase in listing activity is expected next spring.

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

Inventory was up year-over-year for the 45th consecutive week.  

However, inventory is still historically low.

New listings remain below typical pre-pandemic levels.