Our research team releases regular monthly housing trends reports. These reports break down inventory metrics like the number of active listings and the pace of the market. In light of the developing COVID-19 situation affecting the industry, we want to give readers more timely weekly updates. You can look forward to a Weekly Housing Trends View near the end of each week along with weekly coverage from our Housing Market Recovery Index and a weekly video update from our economists. Here’s what the housing market looked like last week.
Weekly Housing Trends Key Findings
Key Findings:
- Median listing prices continue to grow at 12.9 percent over last year, marking the 13th consecutive week of double-digit price growth. Economists, market watchers, and most especially buyers have been looking for signs of a slowdown in the housing market that has been red hot since its post-pandemic recovery. So far, at least, the median listing price continues to defy gravity.
- New listings were down 12 percent. The new listings trend took another step back this week. Earlier in the year, new listings growth was tied closely to the prevalence of coronavirus spread in various housing markets. The second week of larger declines in new sellers could be related to rising new coronavirus cases. New listings are a necessary ingredient for further home sales, so additional improvement here will be important for home buyers and sustaining home sales activity.
- Total inventory was down 39 percent. After five steady weeks at 38 percent, the total number of homes available for sale shrank by a slightly larger amount this week. Fewer new sellers coming to market while a greater than usual number of buyers continue to search for a home causes inventory to continue to evaporate.
- Time on market is still 13 days faster than last year. With limited homes available for sale, those that are on the market are selling quickly–roughly 2 weeks faster than a year ago. For 7 weeks now, we’ve seen homes sell 13 or 14 days faster than last year. We typically see a big increase in time on market before the end of November. If this indicator remains steady in the weeks ahead, that points to a seasonal slowdown, but if time on market shrinks by a greater amount, that’s a signal that this year’s housing market is not taking the holidays off.
Data Summary
| First Two Weeks March | Week ending Oct 24 | Week ending Oct 31 | Week ending Nov 7 |
| Median Listing Prices | +4.5% YOY | 12.2+% YOY | +12.9% YOY | +12.9% YOY |
| New Listings | +5% YOY | -2% YOY | -9% YOY | -12% YOY |
| Total Listings | -16% YOY | -38% YOY | -38% YOY | -39% YOY |
| Time on Market | 4 days faster YOY | 14 days faster YOY | 13 days faster YOY | 13 days faster YOY |
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