Zillow Weekly Market Report: Data Through July 4, 2020
Sellers have the upper hand in today’s housing market. Despite a dip in newly pending sales, homes are flying off the market at a record pace and inventory remains incredibly scarce.
Homes are being snatched up at a record pace
- Homes once again went under contract at their fastest pace since at least 2018 (when Zillow began tracking the data), tying a record set last week.
- Homes sold in the week ending July 4 were typically on the market for 20 days before a contract to sell was signed, a full week faster than the same period last year. And they are typically selling after only five days in Kansas City, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
- Newly pending sales fell 4% from the previous week — the second consecutive weekly drop — and remained steady from a month earlier.
The housing market continues to be starved for inventory
- New for-sale listings dropped 1.5% from the previous week. They are now 7.9% below last month’s level, and down 27.2% from a year ago.
- Total for-sale inventory is 22.4% lower than during the same week last year.
Few price cuts show the market has tilted in favor of sellers
- Housing demand is clearly outstripping supply, as demonstrated in this week’s sales and inventory figures. Sellers are reacting by more often holding steady with their list price — only 4.1% of active listings had undergone at least one price cut last week, down from 5.6% a year earlier.
- The median list price grew again to $338,760, up 0.5% from the previous week and 4.3% year over year. High-end homes are coming onto the market at a greater rate than more-affordable homes, helping to drive up the median list price.
Zillow’s pending sales and home price forecast remains steady
- The most recent forecast from Zillow’s economic research team shows an expected 1.8% drop in prices from April to October 2020, with a slow recovery through 2021.
- Zillow economists expect pending sales volume reached its bottom in early April, about 50% below February levels. Pending sales are forecasted to recover almost fully by the end of the year.
Methodology
The Zillow Weekly Market Reports are compiled by Zillow Economic Research and data is aggregated from public sources and listing data on Zillow.com. Newly pending sales and new for-sale listings data reflect daily counts using a smoothed, seven-day trailing average. Total for-sale listings, days to pending and median list price data reflect weekly counts using a smoothed, four-week trailing average.
Click here to read past editions of Zillow’s Weekly Market Report.