"Stale" Housing Inventory Grows For First Time In Pandemic Era

According to Redfin, the share of homes listed for sale for at least 30 days without going under contract grew by 12.5% year over year in July. Some 61.2% of for-sale homes stayed on the market for 30 days or longer, up from 54.4% in July 2021.

It’s the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that “stale” housing supply has increased on an annual basis, with Redfin defining “stale” homes as those on market for at least 30 days without going under contract. It’s also the second-largest annualized jump since Redfin began tracking the metric in 2012, eclipsed only by the 13.9% yearly leap seen in April 2020 when the pandemic brought housing activity to a standstill.

Buyers have pulled back amidst the combination of a still-rising rate environment and high home prices. The shift is beginning to frustrate some sellers. “People want to know whether we’ve officially shifted from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.

While there’s not a clear line separating those two ideas, homes sitting on the market longer is a point in buyers’ favor,” said Taylor Marr, Redfin’s deputy chief economist. “Buyers can take their time making careful decisions about homes without worrying so much about bidding wars, offering over the asking price and waiving contingencies. “It’s a different story for sellers, who now need to price lower and get back to the basics, like staging and painting, to get buyers’ attention.”

Among the country’s largest metro areas, Oakland has seen stale inventory grow the most, with the share of homes on the market for at least 30 days up 60.7% annually. Also on the list were Phoenix (54.5%); Austin (50.9%); Anaheim, CA (49.7%); and Riverside, CA (46.7%).

Redfin’s prediction is that the big yearly jump in stale inventory is likely to regress soon. Part of the uptick is a reflection of last year's scorching housing market, where the typical home, sold in an average 15 days in July 2021, close to the shortest on-market time ever recorded.

Source: https://www.scotsmanguide.com/browse/content/stale-inventory-grows-annually-for-first-time-in-pandemic-era By Arnie Aurellano, Editor, Scotsman Guide.