Existing Home Sales Drop For 3rd Straight Month

Existing home sales dropped 9.7 percent in the United States in May, the third straight month of declines as the nation continues to cope with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Total existing home sales dropped to 3.91 million in May, which is 26.6 percent below May 2019 levels, according to a report released Monday by the National Association of Realtors. “Sales completed in May reflect contract signings in March and April – during the strictest times of the pandemic lockdown and hence the cyclical low point,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Home sales will surely rise in the upcoming months with the economy reopening, and could even surpass one-year-ago figures in the second half of the year.” All four…

Report: Housing Recovery Led By Tech Hubs

The recovery in the housing market is continuing – and is being led by five high-tech hubs, according to the Weekly Housing Recovery Report released Thursday by realtor.com. For the week ending June 13, realtor.com found that local markets with strong tech job presences are bouncing back more quickly than others. Five of these communities – Denver, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego – pushed past their January 2020 pace last week. “As the market heads into the summer, growth in online home searches and asking prices has surpassed pre-COVID levels, but movement in supply and time on market remains well below seasonal pace,” said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for realtor.com. “But locally the story is much…

Single-Family Permits Post Strong May Numbers

The housing market is gaining steam. Single-family permits issued in May were 11.9 percent above April levels in the United States, while all privately-owned housing unit permits were up for 14.4 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Total housing starts also were up 4.3 percent for the month. “We expect this momentum to continue as economic activity recovers,” National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist Robert Dietz said. “In another promising sign, single-family permits are up almost 2 percent on a year-to-date basis and builders are bringing back thousands of workers laid off in March and April to meet renewed demand.” On a regional and year-to-date basis (January…

Scarce Home Inventory Drives Bidding Wars

Good news for home sellers: Bidding wars are making a comeback. A new report released Monday by Redfin found that 49.4 percent of Redfin offers faced competition in May – up 43.9 percent in April. The uptick is being fueled by a shortage of inventory, as there were 18.9 percent fewer houses on the market in May than a year earlier. “Bidding wars also jumped in May because homebuyers felt they were starting to get more clarity around where the economy was headed, with cities around the nation lifting stay-at-home orders. This gave house hunters more confidence to compete,” Redfin lead economist Taylor Marr said. “But with coronavirus cases back on the rise in many states, only time will tell whether…

Housing Market Recovers In Face Of Pandemic, Unrest

In an attempt to measure housing’s comeback from the coronavirus pandemic, realtor.com created the Housing Recovery Index – with the initial report showing the U.S. housing market is recovering even in the face of COVID and civil unrest across the country. The report uses realtor.com search traffic, media list prices, new listings and median time on the market to compare it to a baseline of 100 – established based on January 2020 market trends. The higher a market’s index value, the bigger the recovery and vice versa. For the week ending June 6, the Housing Recovery Index was 88.8 nationwide, 11.2 points below the January baseline and up 1 point over the week before. The slight increase in this week’s overall…

COVID: 4+ Years For Millennials To Recover Savings

The economic shutdowns in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic are forcing people to dip into their savings to cover basic necessities – and that will put a crimp in people’s ability to save for a down payment for a home. That is especially true for millennials, as a new realtor.com analysis reports that it will take “nine months of saving to recoup a single month’s worth of expenses” for the average millennial. The report found it would take the average millennial 53 months to recover that value back into their savings, if they had no income for six months.  “Millennials may largely escape the worst of COVID-19, but with an unemployment rate of 13.4 percent, this age group is not…

Sales, Listings Dip Slightly In Late May

Zillow’s Weekly Market Report shows that newly pending sales and new listings fell in the seven days ending May 25 after sustained growth since mid-April – perhaps a function of the Memorial Day holiday. Even with the dip, pending sales and new listings remain well up from the previous month when the market was bouncing back from a slowdown in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Zillow reports that experts expect the sales lost during that period to be recouped in full over the next few years.  The report found: Newly pending sales fell 5.2 percent from the previous week.Month-over-month, newly pending sales are up 24.5 percent nationally.New listings are up 19.3 percent from a month ago, they fell…

Signs Pointing Up In Monthly Housing Report

All signs seem to be pointing up for the U.S. housing market. Realtor.com’s May Monthly Housing Trends report released Thursday found that the market likely reached its low point in mid-April – with signs of recovery beginning late in the month followed by a stronger May. The report found: The national median listing price hit a new all-time high of $330,000 in May, despite rising just 1.6 percent year-over-year.The median list price began the month up 1.4 percent and strengthened throughout the month, increasing 3.1 percent during the last week of May.New listings were down 29.1 percent the week ending May 9 but recovered to down 22.9 percent by the week of May 30.While still well-below last year’s levels, the rate of decline in…