The market outlook remains positive going into the summer despite the coronavirus. According to realtor.com®’s latest Weekly Housing Recovery Index, which hit 92 points for the week ending June 20, we are just 8 points short of the pre-COVID baseline.
One of the biggest improvements this week? Days on market—homes are currently selling three days faster over last week, on average. And three more markets crossed the recovery benchmark this week—Miami, Philadelphia, Rochester, N.Y., and Jacksonville, Fla.—totaling in 10 markets that are above the January baseline.
The greatest recovery happened in Seattle, Denver, Boston, Jacksonville and Philadelphia. The West continues to lead the recovery with an Index score of 99.6, followed by the South (93.9), with the Northeast and Midwest catching up (94.5 and 93.6, respectively).
Here’s the market breakdown for the week ending June 20:
New Listings: -21 percent YoY
Median Listing Prices: +5.6 YoY
Total Listings: -29% percent YoY
Days on Market: 13 days slower YoY
“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 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.”
Zillow also reports a rebound, with homes on the market for 22 days—the fastest pace since June 2018, according to a recent analysis. While there has been an inventory crunch, Zillow reports that new listings are up 14 percent month-over-month.
In pockets of the country, homes are flying off the market. In Columbus, Ohio, for example, homes spend only five days on average before getting an accepted offer. Days on market are also quick in Cincinnati (six), Kansas City (six), Seattle (seven) and Indianapolis (seven). Other areas are, however, struggling. New York has one of the slowest markets, with homes spending an average of 70 days on the market before getting an accepted offer. Next slowest are Miami (55 days) and Atlanta (38 days).
“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,” said Zillow economist Jeff Tucker. “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. The question is whether the tempo will slow after buyers finish playing catch-up from planned spring moves, or if this fast-paced market will stay hot thanks to continued low interest rates and buyers scrambling over record-low summer inventory.”
Liz Dominguez is RISMedia’s senior online editor. Email her your real estate news ideas to ldominguez@rismedia.com.
