Housing Inventory Stabilizes in December

Home inventory, both new and active, appears to be stabilizing, giving positive signs for the housing market in 2024, according to a new report from Realtor.com.

Realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Trends Report for December found that while homebuyers typically avoid big moves during the holiday season, this season saw some positive changes in the market from previous years. Though the market is still not where it was pre-pandemic as active inventory sits 34.3% below typical 2017 to 2019 levels, home sellers were active in December with 9.1% more newly listed homes compared to last year. When looking at the month-over-month change, a time when the decline in inventory has historically hovered between 6.8% and 13.2%, this year there was a more modest 5.5% decrease, indicating a much smaller than typical drop for this time of year.

Key highlights:

The median listing price grew 1.2% year-over-year to $410,000, and was up 36.7% from 2019.
A few standout places experienced a decrease, including the surprising Northern California suburb of San Jose’s decrease of 7.1%, as well as San Antonio (-3.9%) and Memphis (-2.5%).
Active listings were up 4.9%, and down 30.9% from 2019.
New listings grew 9.1%, and were down 11.8% from 2019.
Median days on the market fell by 4 days to 61, down 16 days from 2019.
The share of active listings with price reductions dropped 1.4 percentage points to 12.7%, up 2.2 percentage points from 2019.
When examining the 50 largest metros, 23 experienced increased inventory levels year-over-year, with Memphis (+28.5%), New Orleans (25.5%) and San Antonio (20.9%) experiencing the most growth among them.
Though this growth is promising, the country is still seeing lower inventory levels as a whole relative to pre-pandemic times with the exception of San Antonio (+12.8%), Austin (+11.7%) and New Orleans (+11.6%), which saw higher levels of inventory compared to typical 2017 to 2019 levels.

Major takeaway:
“Across the U.S. we’re seeing improvements in inventory levels, especially in the South, which experienced a 7.7% increase in active listings year-over-year,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist, Realtor.com® “While the uptick in December inventory levels is encouraging, it is important to note that two-thirds of outstanding mortgages in the U.S. have a rate under 4% and more than 90% have a rate less than 6%. We are optimistic that inventory levels are moving in a positive direction, but the number of homes on the market is still low relative to pre-pandemic levels. Some sellers are clearly motivated already, but other households may hold out for lower rates before selling or moving to new homes.”

For the full report, click here.