Time On Market Drops As Housing Recovery Continues

By Jim Perskie

The housing recovery is continuing, even as the coronavirus pandemic is showing no signs of letting up across the United States.

The realtor.com Weekly Housing Recovery Index released Thursday increased two points for the week ending June 20 – climbing to 92 points, just eight points short of the pre-pandemic baseline.

This week’s data shows the housing market is continuing to warm up as economies reopen and more buyers return to the streets, but with COVID cases increasing in some regions uncertainty still remains,” said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for realtor.com. 

The report found:

• Time on market dropped by three days last week, though remains 13 days slower than last year.
• New listings are down 19 percent from last year.
• Median listing prices are growing at 5.6 percent over last year, more than a percentage point above pre-COVID pace.
• Total inventory is down 29 percent from last year.

In a separate report released Thursday, Zillow said the average time on market for homes – just 22 days – is the lowest it has been in two years.

“Buyers shopping today might expect to be welcomed by desperate sellers, but they’ll instead discover houses selling like hotcakes in the speediest market in recent memory,” Zillow economist Jeff Tucker said. The market did slow down in April, but anyone shopping this summer needs to be prepared to keep up with the lightning-quick pace of sales today.” 

Vivas agreed, saying “The pace of home sales also showed the first substantial signs of improvement in anticipation of the summer season. It’s unlikely we’ll see the national pace of sales return to normal this year, but we should see home closings accelerate in the coming weeks — and peak later than usual this summer.”

Regionally, the West (index 99.6) continues to lead the recovery with the overall index now essentially at the January benchmark of 100. The South (93.9), which led the early recovery, is beginning to lag relative to other regions, with both the Northeast and Midwest (94.5 and 93.6) catching up. See full list of metros below.

At a local level, Miami, Philadelphia, Rochester, New York, and Jacksonville, Florida, all crossed the recovery benchmark this week, taking the total number of markets above the January baseline to 10, the highest number since the onset of COVID.

Here is a look at 50 metropolitan areas and how the recovery is going: