According to Realtor.com®’s monthly housing data report for August, this marked the 22nd consecutive month of inventory growth. While active listings are up 20.9% since last year, that pace is slowing and has been for the past four months, down 10.6% from May, the report detailed.
Housing inventory is growing fastest in the West and South, and also recovering the fastest since the pandemic in these areas, while the Midwest and Northeast fall behind. Despite this, nationwide inventory remains 14.3% below typical pre-pandemic levels, worsening since June—indicating that inventory recovery is moving in the wrong direction.
“The South and West built more in response to the pandemic boom, and demand has also subsequently collapsed in those areas due to high interest rates and also some mean reversion from the pandemic-era frenzy,” Realtor.com Senior Economist Jake Krimmel told RISMedia.
The total number of listings is up 16.4% from last year, maintaining a 21-month growth streak, although the pace has been cooling since June. As for pending sales in specific, that number has dipped 1.3% since last year’s historically low level.
With no help to the declining listing count, the flow of new listings is losing steam as a growing number of sellers pull their homes from the market. New listings were up 4.9% year-over-year in August, but the pace has been declining in recent months, and is down 18% from pre-pandemic norms. All four regions saw year-over-year increases in new listings, with the Northeast leading the way. Among the nation’s 50 largest metros, 29 recorded an annual increase of newly listed homes, an improvement from 26 in July. However, only three markets, all in the South, have exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
As supply growth falters, a larger number of homeowners are retreating from the market. Delistings surged 57% compared to July 2024, signaling that sellers may be unwilling to compromise. The delisting-to-new listing ratio came in this month at 0.24, meaning that 24 previously listed homes were taken off the market for every 100 new homes added. That number is up from 0.21 in June and 0.17 last year.
Homes are also lingering on the market longer. In August, the typical time a home spent on the market was 60 days, seven days longer than last year and higher than pre-pandemic numbers. This marks the 17th straight month of year-over-year increases in time on market, with all four regions seeing homes taking longer to sell.
“Prospective sellers are seeing homes sit on the market for longer and watching other sellers cut prices to no avail, so they are deciding against listing,” Krimmel added. “Meanwhile, other sellers on the market are getting fed up with waiting or failing to find a buyer at their preferred price, so they’re pulling their homes off as a result.”
The national median listing price stands at $429,990, essentially flat since last year, and down 2.2% month-over-month. On a per square foot basis, prices rose just 0.1%. Since the pandemic, however, the median listing price has climbed over 36%, and 51.3% for the average price per square foot. Regionally, most markets have barely declined or fallen flat, with prices rising sharply in the Northeast when adjusting for home size.
Although median listing prices showed little movement these past few months, 20.3% of listings recorded price reductions in August, up year-over-year but declining slightly since July. The Northeast saw the fewest price cuts, at 12.9% of listings, and the West saw the most at 22.3%.
Krimmel says he sees the housing market continuing to slow as fall approaches, with buyers tending to drop out at the start of the school year. He believes this fall will likely be very slow, as the market has been persistently cooling already these past few months. However, Krimmel says he believes there are some silver linings in this situation.
“One, the fall slowdown makes a great time to buy for those who are still in the market or who can afford to be,” he noted. “We have already seen seven top-50 metros eclipse six months of supply this summer—the typical threshold for a buyer’s market—so there’s a good chance that several of the 23 ‘balanced market’ metros will cross that threshold in the coming months.”
Krimmel added, “Two, interest rates recently hit 11-month lows, and I would expect demand to pick up accordingly. Should rates continue to decline this fall, we might see a later than usual resurgence.”
For the full report, click here.
