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.

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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.