Housing activity has been anything but frozen in January, with inventory moving at a 4 percent faster rate annually as demand continues to outpace supply, according to recently released realtor.com® data. The listing portal’s median list price has held firm at $250,000, a record for the off-season.
“We saw evidence of a stronger than normal off-season starting last September and October due to pent-up demand and surging interest from first-time buyers,” says realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. “Since the election, demand seems to have intensified, potentially as a reaction to mortgage rates rapidly moving higher. The threat of rates approaching multi-year highs in the months ahead is creating a sense of urgency. The downside to this strong off-season is that we have started 2017 with a new low volume of available homes for sale and a new high for prices.”
Realtor.com expects the median age of its listings to be 96 days in January—eight days more than December 2016, but four days less than January 2016. The portal also expects inventory to dip another 9 percent, despite 360,000 new listings entering the market.
The markets heating up January include San Jose and San Francisco, Calif., according to the portal’s Hotness Index, with Tampa, Fla., rising in the ranks to the top 20:
For more information, please visit www.realtor.com.
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