Rising Prices, Low Supply Show Sellers in Control of Housing Market

Rhea-AI Summary

Zillow's Weekly Market Report highlights a competitive U.S. housing market driven by low supply and high buyer demand. Total for-sale inventory has decreased for 13 consecutive weeks, down 29.1% year-over-year. Despite rising median list prices, which are 8.9% higher than last year, new listings rose 3.5% month-over-month, signaling potential relief for buyers. Homes are selling 13 days faster than last year. Notably, newly pending sales increased by 18.4% year-over-year, the highest gain since November 2019. Mortgage rates remain low, aiding market activity.

Positive

• New listings rose 3.5% month-over-month, indicating potential supply relief.
• Pending sales increased by 18.4% year-over-year, the highest since November 2019.
• Days to pending sales decreased to 13, two weeks faster than last year.

Negative

• Total for-sale inventory down 29.1% year-over-year, creating a supply crunch.
• Median list prices up 8.9% compared to last year, potentially limiting affordability.

SEATTLE, Sept. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sellers continued to drive a housing market with low supply and eager buyers as total for-sale inventory contracted for the 13th straight week and typical time-on-market maintained record lows, according to Zillow's Weekly Market Report¹. Typical homes on the market are more expensive as median list prices are up nearly 9% compared to last year. Buyers may see relief on the horizon, however, as new for-sale inventory rose month-over-month and is closer to last-year's figures than any time since March.

Days-to-pending match August lows; newly pending sales stabilize high above last year

• As has been the case for the past three weeks, homes are typically going under contract 13 days after they're listed. This is two weeks faster than a year ago and the shortest median time on market in Zillow's weekly records going back through January 2019. 
• Newly pending sales are up 18.4% compared to last year; the highest year-over-year gain since November 2019. The level is holding steady, with no change compared to a month ago, and only a slight increase (0.5%) week over week.

For-sale inventory continues to tighten, though new listings may provide relief

• New sellers may help sate rapid demand as new for-sale inventory rose 3.5% compared to a month prior. The number of new listings is nearly back to normal for this time of year; at just 4.5% below the same week in 2019, the year-over-year gap is the smallest seen since March.
• Inventory continues a long contraction that began the first week of June. Total for-sale inventory is down 29.1% year over year, the largest yearly deficiency since at least January 2019. For-sale inventory is down 3.6% month over month and is slightly tighter than the previous week (-0.8%).

List prices skyrocket over last year

• Sellers are clearly in the driver's seat as median list prices grew to $345,722. The 8.9% rise in list price compared to last year is the largest year-over-year increase since at least January 2019.
• Median sale price the week ending July 18 was $280,375, which was 6.4% higher than last year. The month-over-month median sale price increase of 4.6% was second in size only to the week prior in records going back through January 2019 (the week ending July 11 posted a 5% month-over-month increase).
• The share of listings with a price cut held steady at 4.2%, which is 1.4 percentage points lower than a year ago.

Eviction moratorium extended through December and mortgage rates fall again

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put forward an order to bar evictions for most renters through December 31. The previous eviction moratorium under the CARES Act expired July 24, although landlords could not begin eviction proceedings for 30 days.
• Mortgage rates fell again this week, trending toward record lows seen in early August, following the Federal Housing Finance Agency's announcement last week that a 0.5% price adjustment on some refinances will be delayed until December 1.

Metropolitan Area*	Newly Pending Sales - YoY	Newly Pending Sales - WoW	Median Days to Pending	New For-Sale Listings - YoY	New For-Sale Listings - WoW	Total For-Sale Listings - YoY	Median Sale Price**	Median Sale Price - YoY**
United States	18.4%	0.5%	13	-4.5%	-1.3%	-29.1%	$280,375	6.4%
New York/Newark, NY/NJ	51.4%	2.3%	30	23.6%	0.4%	-14.8%	$448,375	2.9%
Los Angeles, CA	4.9%	0.4%	13	13.4%	1.1%	-25.5%	$708,062	5.5%
Chicago, IL	43.1%	0.3%	13	7.7%	-2.1%	-27.0%	$261,175	4.5%
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX	26.2%	0.9%	23	-13.1%	5.5%	-28.1%	$299,475	6.8%
Philadelphia, PA	24.0%	-3.7%	9	2.7%	0.5%	-37.6%	$271,548	1.4%
Houston, TX	21.2%	-1.3%	16	-24.3%	-7.1%	-25.1%	$268,306	8.4%
Washington, DC	21.3%	-4.1%	6	5.8%	0.8%	-33.6%	$447,944	4.2%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL	23.6%	2.5%	28	-10.1%	-9.4%	-11.6%	$325,000	11.1%
Atlanta, GA	17.8%	1.8%	15	-18.5%	-4.4%	-23.6%	$275,266	6.6%
Boston, MA	15.4%	-3.1%	7	-8.9%	6.5%	-22.2%	$517,856	6.3%
San Francisco, CA	41.5%	2.7%	12	10.0%	-8.0%	3.0%	$874,500	7.8%
Detroit, MI	36.5%	1.4%	8	2.8%	-3.6%	-35.8%	$215,125	4.8%
Riverside, CA	7.6%	1.1%	9	-4.4%	0.3%	-46.8%	$404,500	7.6%
Phoenix, AZ	6.5%	-0.6%	10	3.8%	7.2%	-24.9%	$319,075	10.0%
Seattle, WA	18.9%	0.3%	6	-4.3%	-6.8%	-29.4%	$540,884	9.7%
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN	22.2%	2.2%	16	19.8%	3.3%	-25.5%	$304,475	8.9%
San Diego, CA			8	9.9%	1.1%	-37.3%	$626,125	5.5%
St. Louis, MO	18.4%	0.2%	6	-3.8%	0.6%	-31.9%	$213,875	10.4%
Tampa, FL			8	0.1%	-2.3%	-31.4%	$255,762	21.3%
Baltimore, MD	8.1%	-6.3%	9	7.1%	1.8%	-44.6%	$318,925	18.9%
Denver, CO	20.5%	1.3%	6	16.4%	3.7%	-29.4%	$452,375	4.8%
Pittsburgh, PA	27.8%	-1.4%	8	-7.8%	-2.5%	-25.7%	$194,988	3.4%
Portland, OR	22.4%	0.9%	6	-1.1%	0.6%	-30.7%	$427,179	5.9%
Charlotte, NC	-5.7%	1.6%	6	-13.7%	0.4%	-40.1%	$285,000	6.2%
Sacramento, CA	15.9%	1.2%	7	-3.0%	-3.3%	-41.6%	$461,062	8.5%
San Antonio, TX	44.1%	-0.5%	26	-22.2%	-0.9%	-23.5%	$252,763	7.3%
Orlando, FL			11	4.5%	-0.9%	-14.3%	$274,750	4.5%
Cincinnati, OH	8.4%	-0.2%	4	-15.8%	7.0%	-37.3%	$209,612	8.2%
Cleveland, OH	31.3%	0.1%	15	8.2%	-11.6%	-37.7%	$174,375	6.9%
Kansas City, MO	12.3%	1.0%	4	-6.5%	-0.1%	-41.6%	$255,162	9.7%
Las Vegas, NV	6.0%	0.3%	13	-5.8%	-5.3%	-24.1%	$311,280	4.1%
Columbus, OH	7.0%	-0.3%	4	-3.1%	-3.2%	-38.4%	$234,538	5.7%
Indianapolis, IN	5.7%	0.4%	5	-2.8%	-5.0%	-40.0%	$225,125	9.4%
San Jose, CA	-15.1%	-1.2%	15	40.0%	-7.4%	-19.3%	$1,126,812	1.7%
Austin, TX	29.1%	-1.9%	7	-28.4%	-10.1%	-31.0%	$354,175	8.5%
Virginia Beach, VA			25	12.7%	-1.6%	-38.1%	$275,346	5.0%
Nashville, TN			37	-19.9%	-6.9%	-14.7%	$319,066	6.1%
Providence, RI	-0.7%	0.2%	9	-8.1%	-4.1%	-35.7%	$318,975	7.4%
Milwaukee, WI			29	13.9%	5.8%	-9.7%	$249,675	7.2%
Jacksonville, FL	19.8%	0.9%	13	-0.6%	5.0%	-32.1%	$270,875	4.4%
Memphis, TN	13.8%	4.4%	6	-11.2%	-4.2%	-39.5%	$207,581	-0.2%
Oklahoma City, OK	22.2%	-1.2%	10	-1.9%	8.9%	-33.5%	$201,750	5.2%
Louisville, KY	-3.2%	-1.6%	6	-5.5%	-3.2%	-41.8%	$221,238	7.6%
Hartford, CT	27.9%	3.0%	7	-0.2%	-17.1%	-42.8%	$252,250	2.5%
Richmond, VA			5	-2.0%	-9.0%	-36.2%	$276,625	1.3%
New Orleans, LA	5.9%	0.0%	12	-24.8%	-8.7%	-41.3%	$231,112	7.4%
Buffalo, NY	20.2%	-1.3%	10	20.5%	6.1%	-32.3%	$182,250	1.1%
Raleigh, NC	17.3%	1.2%	5	-19.2%	13.9%	-35.5%	$312,062	5.5%
Birmingham, AL	34.1%	2.3%	8	1.3%	-1.6%	-33.7%	$231,250	11.5%
Salt Lake City, UT			6	-29.5%	-1.6%	-40.4%	$374,338	7.5%

*Table ordered by market size
**Sale price data as of the week ending July 18

About Zillow

Zillow, the top real estate website in the U.S., is building an on-demand real estate experience. Whether selling, buying, renting or financing, customers can turn to Zillow's businesses to find and get into their next home with speed, certainty and ease.

In addition to for-sale and rental listings, Zillow Offers buys and sells homes directly in dozens of markets across the country, allowing sellers control over their timeline. Zillow Home Loans, our affiliate lender, provides our customers with an easy option to get pre-approved and secure financing for their next home purchase.

Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help them finish it — with the same confidence, ease and empowerment they've come to expect from real estate's most trusted brand.

Zillow is owned and operated by Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:Z and ZG).

¹ The Zillow Weekly Market Reports are a weekly overview of the national and local real estate markets. The reports are compiled by Zillow Economic Research and data is aggregated from public sources and listing data on Zillow.com. New for-sale listings data reflect daily counts using a smoothed, seven-day trailing average. Total for-sale listings, newly pending sales, days to pending and median list price data reflect weekly counts using a smoothed, four-week trailing average. National newly pending sales trends are based upon aggregation of the 38 largest metro areas where historic pending listing data coverage is most statistically reliable, and excludes some metros due to upstream data coverage issues. For more information, visit www.zillow.com/research/.

 

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SOURCE Zillow

FAQ

What is the current state of the housing market according to Zillow's report?

Zillow's report indicates a competitive housing market with low inventory and high demand, leading to significant price increases.

How much have median list prices increased in the last year?

Median list prices have increased by 8.9% compared to last year.

What percentage did newly pending sales increase according to Zillow?

Newly pending sales increased by 18.4% year-over-year.

What is the current trend in for-sale inventory?

Total for-sale inventory has decreased by 29.1% year-over-year.

How fast are homes selling according to the latest report?

Homes are selling 13 days faster than they did last year.