Thu, 07 January 2021 | housing
The number of homes for sale in the U.S. reached an all-time low in December, dipping below 700,000 for the first time as buyers remained active throughout the holiday season, according to realtor.com®'s Monthly Housing Trends Report released today. Due to unusually strong demand, home prices were up double digits compared to last year, however, the median listing price came down to $340,000 from a summer high of $350,000.
"The shortage of homes for sale has been an ongoing issue for the last couple of years, but in December the combination of the holiday inventory slowdown and the pandemic buying trend caused it to dip to its lowest level in history," said realtor.com® Chief Economist, Danielle Hale. "Looking forward, we could see new lows in the next couple of months as buyers remain relatively active, but a surge of new COVID cases may slow the number of sellers entering the market. Newly listed properties have shown mixed trends. While December's data points to possible relief on the horizon, this figure has been impacted the most in areas with large COVID surges, and consistent improvement will be key in order to get out of this extreme shortage. We eventually expect to see improvements in the supply of homes for sale, especially in the second half of the year. Until then, finding a home will continue to be a top challenge for buyers across all price ranges."
The number of homes for sale reached a historic low as buyer demand remained strong
Nationally, the number of homes for sale was down 39.6%, amounting to 449,000 fewer homes for sale than last December. Newly listed homes were only down 0.8% compared to last year, a substantial improvement from November when new listings were down 8.7%. Western (+30.8%) and Northeastern larger markets (+15.0%) are seeing the strongest improvements with more new listings hitting the market, while the Midwest (+0.2%) and South (-4.0%) lagged behind. The West's surge in newly listed homes is primarily attributed to San Jose, Calif. (+123.8%) and San Francisco (+98.9%), which saw far more new listings this December compared to 2019.
Home prices continued to grow at double-digits, with the median listing price growing 13.4% year-over-year, to $340,000 in December. This is a slight step back from its peak of $350,000. While prices increased nationwide, the largest gains were seen in the Northeast (+12.2%), followed by the West (+10.4%), Midwest (+8.6%) and South (+6.7%).
Source: Realtor.com®