Spring home-buying season is officially here, and an abundance of inventory has entered the housing market.
As more and more homeowners list their homes for sale, new data from Realtor.com suggests the market is shifting further in the favor of homebuyers.
“The U.S. housing market has largely favored sellers over the last several years as a result of the record-breaking low inventory and red-hot demand that led to intense competition and fast-rising home prices. However, we’re now seeing some metros buck this trend,” Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said. “Slowing sales and growing inventories have caused months supply to increase in many markets across the country.”
Albany, New York; Chicago, San Antonio, Jacksonville, Florida; Los Angeles; Providence, Rhode Island; Dallas; Nashville and Tampa are the best-performing metros for American homebuyers, according to Realtor.com.
Unfortunately, in these buyer-friendly housing markets, inventory has now outpaced sales growth, according to Hale.
“As demand cools in these top markets for buyers, inventory continues to ramp up,” Hale said. “On average, the top markets for buyers are seeing active inventory grow at a rapid 14.6% pace, year-over-year, compared to the national growth rate of just 4%.”
But as supply continues to heighten in these markets, the company has discovered that price appreciation has hit a wall.
In fact, sales prices in the top 10 markets have grown only 1.4%. This is significantly down from the 8.4% sales price growth seen in 2018, and 6.3% growth in 2017, according to Realtor.com.
Additionally, lessened demand and pricier inventory have led to an impact on sales, which have declined 5.5% on average, year-over-year.
“These 10 housing markets are already more buyer-friendly when looking at the availability of homes for sale in different markets, however, the mismatch between what’s available and what buyers want has led to lukewarm demand and lackluster sales,” Hale said. “As inventory continues to grow in these markets, buyers will see more options, and should ultimately gain more bargaining power.”
NOTE: Realtor.com analyzed the top performing markets for homebuyers in order to gauge the pace of sales relative to inventory.
