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The number of homes available to buyers climbed almost 19% in June, surpassing typical pre-COVID levels, and posting its biggest gain since Realtor.com started collecting data in July 2017. That's welcome news for prospective homebuyers but the U.S. still has a lower-than-typical housing inventory.
One factor behind the increase in listings was the decline in pending listings, meaning fewer for-sale homes were under contract with a buyer. In addition, new seller activity rebounded to 1.0% greater than its 2017-2019 pace, with new listings up 4.5% Y/Y, the company said.
Even with the month-to-month increase in listings, there are still fewer than half as many for-sale homes vs. June 2019.
"While we anticipate that more inventory will eventually cool the feverish pace of competition, the typical buyer has yet to see meaningful relief from quickly selling homes and record-high asking prices," said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.
The national median listing price rose 16.9% Y/Y to a new high of $450K, according to the Realtor.com report.
Radian Group's homegenius Home Price Index rose at an annualized rate of 18.0% in May, setting a record for price appreciation. It put the median estimated home price in the U.S. for single family and condominium homes at $325,684 in May.
With mortgage rates rising, homebuilder stocks have come under pressure. In Thursday premarket trading, many homebuilder stocks are in the red. D.R. Horton (DHI) -1.4%, PulteGroup (PHM) -1.5%, Toll Brothers (TOL) -2.3%, KB Home (KBH) -0.5%.
On Tuesday, the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller HPI in April rose slightly more than expected and eased from March