Signs Show Sellers Are Entering The Market
The current state of the real estate market poses hurdles for buyers to find available homes for purchase as supply has not been keeping up with great demand. However, per a recent statement from Realtor.com, signs are indicating that sellers are beginning to return to the market.
Javier Vivas, Director of Economic Research at Realtor.com states: “Seller confidence has been improving gradually after reaching its bottom in mid-April, and now it appears to have reached an important recovery milestone…After five long months, sellers are back in the housing market; while encouraging, the improvement to new listings is only the first step in the long road to solving low inventory issues keeping many buyers at bay.”
More homes are starting to be listed for sale, but the inventory levels are still far below where they need to be to keep up with buyer demand. The amount of available housing is good for about 4 months at the current sales pace but ideally we would need enough for 6 months for the market to be in balance. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) explains:
“Total housing inventory at the end of June totaled 1.57 million units, up 1.3% from May, but still down 18.2% from one year ago (1.92 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 4.0-month supply at the current sales pace, down from both 4.8 months in May and from the 4.3-month figure recorded in June 2019.”
For sellers, now can still be a prime time for them to jump into the market as chances are that competition in the area is still relatively low. Most homeowners will not want to hold off until more sellers list their properties where options will be more abundant and in many regions the fall market can usually be a time when activity increases.
For buyers, the hope of more inventory coming on the market is encouraging as there will be more to choose from in their searches. Historically low mortgage rates continue to remain at unheard of levels which makes now an ideal time to make a home purchase.
In the end the number of available homes still needs to improve to meet buyer demand but we see things moving in the right direction. For anyone considering a move in the near future, now is a good time to contact your real estate professionals and discuss the local market.
