Sellers still direct a hot housing market but fall cooling approaches

Rhea-AI Summary

The Zillow Weekly Market Report highlights the current U.S. housing market, showing strong seller control with prices at record highs. However, recent data indicates a potential market slowdown, with newly pending listings rising 22.2% year-over-year but declining 4.6% month-over-month. Inventory continues to decrease, now 35% below 2019 levels, marking the largest drop in years. The median sale price climbed 9.3% year-over-year to $284,625, but monthly growth is slowing. Consumer confidence improved, although unemployment claims remain elevated.

Positive

• Newly pending listings increased by 22.2% year-over-year.
• Median sale price rose 9.3% year-over-year to $284,625.

Negative

• Pending sales fell 4.6% month-over-month.
• Total inventory dropped 35% below 2019 levels.
• New for-sale listings decreased by 9.5% year-over-year.

SEATTLE, Oct. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sellers still hold the reins of the U.S. housing market as prices reach record year-over-year gains and low inventory further erodes, according to the Zillow Weekly Market Report¹. However, tapering pending sales and minimal recent growth in list prices point to an overdue seasonal market slowdown that may finally be coming. 

Pending sales slow as short time-on-market stays steady

• Newly pending listings are up a sizable 22.2% year over year, but fell 4.6% month over month and 1.5% week over week. Though the pandemic pushed the buying season back and demand is still high, buyers' scramble for houses seems to be calming somewhat. 
• As has been the case throughout much of August and September, houses typically stayed on the market for 13 days across the U.S. Listings' median time on the market has grown shorter compared to last year since mid-May, and they now typically go pending 15 days sooner than during the same week in 2019. 

Inventory continues downward spiral that began in late May

• The long contraction in for-sale inventory continued for the 18th straight week, now standing at 35% below 2019 levels. This represents the largest year-over-year drop in total inventory in ZIllow's recently launched weekly data series going back through 2019, and is consistent with a larger drop than any recorded in Zillow's monthly inventory data back to 2013. Inventory is down 3.2% month over month. 
• New for-sale listings are down 9.5% year over year and down 6.9% since the previous month. In late August, a brief surge of new listings threatened to reach parity with 2019 levels, but that pace dropped off again in September, contributing to the ever-deepening drought of overall active listings.

Prices tower over 2019 as sellers' market endures

• Median sale price for the week of Aug. 15 rose 9.3% year over year to $284,625, which is the highest yearly jump in price since at least the start of 2019. Median sale price was up 1.2% month over month, showing less aggressive price growth than the previous eight weeks. 
• Median list price rose to $345,000, 10.4% over last year's figures and again the highest year-over-year increase in Zillow weekly data stretching through last year. However, the only slight monthly uptick of 0.1% could indicate that an overdue seasonal cooling of the market may finally be setting in. 

Consumer confidence rises and unemployment claims fall 

• After two consecutive months of decline, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index jumped 15.5 points from August to September, the strongest month-over-month gain since April 2003. Overall confidence is still 23% below February levels. 
• New unemployment claims fell by 36,000 last week but remained between 800,000 and 900,000 for the fifth straight week. Those collecting unemployment insurance through regular state programs fell by 980,000 to 11.8 million, which is the lowest level seen since March, but still far above the 1.7 million on unemployment at this time last year. 

Metropolitan Area*	Newly Pending Sales - YoY	Newly Pending Sales - WoW	Median Days to Pending	Total For- Sale Listings - YoY	New For- Sale Listings - YoY	New For- Sale Listings - WoW	Median Sale Price**	Median Sale Price - YoY**
United States	22.2%	-1.5%	13	-35.0%	-9.5%	-2.4%	$284,625	9.3%
New York/Newark, NY/NJ	52.5%	-4.5%	31	-20.4%	0.2%	-1.8%	$448,750	4.2%
Los Angeles, CA	10.7%	-0.4%	12	-24.7%	4.3%	-5.0%	$719,625	10.1%
Chicago, IL	36.9%	-3.1%	12	-28.6%	-0.8%	-8.6%	$267,750	8.7%
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX	27.1%	-4.3%	23	-32.7%	-24.4%	-0.7%	$303,250	9.5%
Philadelphia, PA	36.8%	2.4%	8	-37.6%	-1.0%	-2.5%	$279,850	5.3%
Houston, TX	29.3%	-1.5%	16	-29.5%	-26.0%	-13.0%	$269,344	8.8%
Washington, DC	19.5%	2.1%	7	-34.8%	-7.6%	-11.9%	$451,525	7.8%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL	31.7%	-1.7%	26	-13.5%	6.1%	17.9%	$325,660	10.5%
Atlanta, GA	15.6%	-2.8%	14	-31.6%	-21.4%	-11.1%	$285,174	11.2%
Boston, MA	3.9%	-0.2%	8	-31.4%	-16.7%	-9.7%	$523,750	9.7%
San Francisco, CA	31.6%	0.5%	11	-6.4%	21.8%	-7.0%	$916,750	14.6%
Detroit, MI	39.8%	-3.6%	9	-38.8%	-19.0%	-10.6%	$227,025	14.5%
Riverside, CA	11.3%	-1.9%	9	-48.0%	-0.8%	-2.1%	$411,000	10.1%
Phoenix, AZ	24.1%	2.6%	11	-20.9%	3.9%	-7.4%	$323,438	12.6%
Seattle, WA	20.6%	0.4%	6	-31.9%	-6.9%	-2.2%	$529,686	9.4%
Minneapolis- St. Paul, MN	35.8%	-2.1%	16	-27.4%	11.1%	-0.6%	$313,250	9.9%
San Diego, CA	19.9%	0.1%	9	-37.5%	-3.8%	-16.3%	$638,125	9.8%
St. Louis, MO	27.1%	8.5%	6	-38.8%	-8.8%	0.9%	$215,488	9.0%
Tampa, FL	25.9%	-2.7%	7	-35.5%	-10.6%	4.4%	$258,412	10.0%
Baltimore, MD	54.6%	-0.8%	12	-44.4%	0.4%	-6.9%	$318,390	2.1%
Denver, CO	19.6%	-4.3%	6	-35.2%	-0.6%	-16.4%	$461,875	6.5%
Pittsburgh, PA	0.7%	-0.8%	10	-27.8%	-8.9%	5.5%	$199,988	8.7%
Portland, OR	19.7%	-1.6%	7	-38.0%	-6.1%	15.3%	$442,750	8.8%
Charlotte, NC	32.3%	-3.3%	6	-44.3%	-19.1%	-5.2%	$286,562	9.2%
Sacramento, CA	9.8%	-0.7%	7	-44.3%	-4.6%	-10.6%	$460,438	9.2%
San Antonio, TX	80.1%	2.3%	26	-26.0%	-35.2%	-11.6%	$252,750	7.6%
Orlando, FL	14.3%	-1.6%	12	-17.5%	-8.9%	-12.7%	$286,375	9.8%
Cincinnati, OH	19.3%	-1.1%	4	-39.1%	-13.1%	-19.7%	$215,738	16.4%
Cleveland, OH	20.0%	1.3%	17	-40.7%	7.7%	9.2%	$173,100	6.7%
Kansas City, MO	14.9%	-0.1%	5	-44.0%	-5.9%	-7.3%	$256,975	11.1%
Las Vegas, NV	-12.1%	-1.6%	15	-22.4%	-6.0%	-8.2%	$306,625	0.0%
Columbus, OH	25.3%	-4.6%	4	-40.2%	-20.4%	-6.9%	$238,750	17.5%
Indianapolis, IN	-4.9%	-3.2%	5	-40.7%	5.0%	-9.1%	$221,875	10.7%
San Jose, CA	48.3%	-0.7%	15	-19.4%	61.4%	-6.6%	$1,129,875	9.8%
Austin, TX	35.4%	-3.5%	8	-37.2%	-22.1%	-21.6%	$351,617	9.7%
Virginia Beach, VA	22.9%	-0.6%	30	-39.8%	3.0%	-6.7%	$274,500	6.3%
Nashville, TN	5.3%	2.5%	34	-25.6%	-21.7%	5.2%	$317,750	5.9%
Providence, RI	49.3%	-0.6%	13	-38.8%	-3.3%	3.2%	$324,675	8.8%
Milwaukee, WI	10.0%	-2.5%	30	-5.6%	-0.8%	-8.2%	$206,875	4.7%
Jacksonville, FL	20.2%	-2.1%	13	-38.4%	-30.5%	-6.1%	$267,000	1.9%
Memphis, TN	14.7%	-2.7%	7	-46.3%	-6.9%	10.9%	$204,875	5.2%
Oklahoma City, OK	43.3%	-1.6%	9	-35.5%	-14.6%	-18.2%	$206,738	13.0%
Louisville, KY	5.3%	2.5%	6	-43.9%	-6.4%	0.1%	$216,875	8.9%
Hartford, CT	49.3%	-0.6%	9	-40.8%	2.0%	-11.7%	$263,125	11.1%
Richmond, VA			6	-40.4%	-11.0%	-4.2%	$282,938	6.1%
New Orleans, LA	10.0%	-2.5%	18	-43.9%	-19.7%	-6.8%	$231,188	5.9%
Buffalo, NY	20.2%	-2.1%	10	-37.5%	-11.9%	1.4%	$189,375	8.3%
Raleigh, NC	14.7%	-2.7%	5	-42.6%	-16.3%	-4.9%	$313,438	7.0%
Birmingham, AL	43.3%	-1.6%	7	-35.1%	7.8%	-1.5%	$220,412	6.2%
Salt Lake City, UT			6	-46.5%	-40.3%	-24.0%	$379,646	10.3%

*Table ordered by market size 
**Sale price data as of the week ending Sept. 26

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/.

About Zillow

Zillow, the most visited 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).

 

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SOURCE Zillow

FAQ

What are the latest trends in the U.S. housing market according to Zillow's report?

According to Zillow's report, the U.S. housing market shows strong seller control, but signs of a slowdown are emerging with a 4.6% month-over-month drop in pending sales.

How has inventory changed in the U.S. housing market?

Inventory has declined for 18 consecutive weeks, now standing 35% below 2019 levels, marking the largest drop in recent history.

What is the current median sale price in the U.S. housing market?

The median sale price has risen to $284,625, reflecting a 9.3% increase year-over-year.

How did consumer confidence change recently according to the report?

Consumer confidence rose by 15.5 points from August to September, marking the strongest gain since April 2003.