The astonishing worth of home listings Americans are sitting on as market grinds to a halt

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

There are so many homes listed for sale in the US that the combined worth is a jaw-dropping number that has hit an all-time high.
A total of $698 billion worth of homes are currently for sale across the country, Redfin reports.
That number is up 20.3 percent from a year ago.
It's the highest dollar amount ever sitting on the market at once, with many sellers offering concessions like slashing prices in order to move their home.
The report is based on an analysis of listings going back through 2012.
The total value of home listings has hit a record high because of the combination of growing inventory, slowing demand, and increasing home-sale prices.
Housing supply is at a five-year high. There are many more sellers than buyers in the market.
The total number of homes on the market nationwide rose 16.7 percent year over year in April to its highest level in 5 years, with the mortgage-rate lock-in effect easing and homeowners trying to cash out due to economic uncertainty.
Housing supply is at a five-year high. There are many more sellers than buyers in the market.
The total number of homes on the market nationwide rose 16.7 percent year over year in April to its highest level in 5 years, with the mortgage-rate lock-in effect easing and homeowners trying to cash out due to economic uncertainty.
New listings increased 8.6 percent to a three-year high.
Homes are also sitting on the market longer.
The typical home that sold in April took 40 days to go under contract, five days longer than a year earlier.
There's also a growing share of inventory that has been sitting on the market for longer than two months.
Homebuying demand is falling.
Home sales are declining, and Redfin agents in much of the country report that would-be buyers are backing off due to record-high monthly housing costs and widespread economic instability.
Home prices are also on the up.
The median U.S. home sale price rose 1.4 percent year over year to April. The total value of inventory is up by much more - 20.3 percent year over year.
This signals that in recent years, the rising number of listings is a bigger factor in the total value of inventory than rising prices.
There are nearly 500,000 more home sellers than buyers in today's housing market.
The fact that so many homes are being listed without buyers out there to purchase them, along with continually rising prices, explains why there is an immense worth of unsold inventory sitting on the market.
'A huge pop of listings hit the market at the start of spring, and there weren't enough buyers to go around,' said Matt Purdy, a Redfin Premier agent in Denver.
'House hunters are only buying if they absolutely have to, and even serious buyers are backing out of contracts more than they used to.
'Buyers have a window to get a deal; there's still a surplus of inventory on the market, with sellers facing reality and willing to negotiate prices down.'
Today's surplus of inventory is in stark contrast to the red-hot pandemic-era housing market when homes were in tight supply.
The total value of listings dropped to $309 billion in January 2022, the lowest dollar value in Redfin's records, which date back to 2012.
At the start of 2022, mortgage rates were sitting at a near-record-low of 3.1 percent, homebuyers were hungry, and home supply was at its lowest level on record.
Homes were flying off the market in 24 days, compared to today's average pace of 40 days.
In April, that number rose even higher, with 44 percent of listings that month on the market for at least 60 days without going under contract.
That's up from 42.1 percent a year earlier, and the highest April share since 2020, when the start of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt.
The total value of that stale inventory (homes on the market for 60 plus days) is $331 billion, which accounts for nearly half of the dollar value of all inventory.
That's up 20.5 percent year over year.
'The record-high dollar value of all homes listed for sale is one way to quantify this buyer's market,' said Chen Zhao, Redfin's head of economics research.
'Not only are there more homes for sale than there have been in five years, but the value of those homes is higher than it has ever been.
'We expect rising inventory, weakened demand, and the prevalence of stale supply to push home prices down 1 percent by the end of this year, which should improve affordability for buyers because incomes are still going up.'