Inventory grew and prices fell in August according to a new report from RE/MAX, the latest sign the current red hot housing market may be cooling.
Home sales dropped 3.5% and the Median Sale Price fell 1.2% to $335,000, according to RE/MAX’s National Housing Report for August. With fall just around the corner, August’s numbers suggest there won’t be any more record-breaking high points this year.
August saw homes sitting on the market for only an average of 24 days. Month’s Supply of Inventory fell from 1.5 in July to 1.3 in August. Last August it was 1.9. A six months supply indicates a market balanced equally between buyers and sellers. Of the 51 metro areas surveyed in August, zero reached that threshold.
Month-over-month, the Median Sales Price isn’t too far from pre-pandemic numbers: from July to August the median fell 1.2%. July-to-August from 2015 to 2019 saw a 1.0% drop. Year over year, the Median Sales Price is up 13.2%. The 6.2% month-over-month drop in active inventory was nearly double the 2015-2019 average July-to-August decline of 3.3%. Inventory is down 26.7% year-over-year.
“The slight seasonal decline in home sales from July to August was countered by this being the second-highest August sales total in the 13-year history of our report. So, although we appear to be past the blistering summer peak, the market is still very active,” says RE/MAX president Nick Bailey.
“In fact, the drop in home prices might signal to potential sellers that it’s time to get off the fence in case they fall further, which in turn could draw more buyers back into the mix. In any case, it seems likely that the combination of super-quick sales and a severe lack of inventory will be with us for the foreseeable future.”
A recent report from Redfin came to similar conclusions about home sales from their own data. Their report found that August was the first time in 15 months that home sales fell. https://www.themortgagenote.org/home-sales-fall-for-first-time-in-15-months/
Here are some more highlights from the report:
- August’s average Days on Market was one day more than July and 18 days faster, on average, than August 2020.
- The overall average number of home sales is down 3.5% from July and up 0.6% from August 2020.
- The Median Sales Price was $335,000, down 1.2% from July and up 13.2% from August 2020.
- The number of homes for sales fell 6.2% from July, down 26.7% from August 2020.