There were 36.7% more homes actively for sale on a typical day in June than there were at the same time last year, marking further stabilization in housing inventory, Realtor.com has reported.
June was the eighth straight month of annual inventory growth, according to the website’s June 2024 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report. June’s year-over-year inventory pickup was also an increase from May, when active for-sale supply was up 35%; the rate of yearly growth in each subsequent month has sped up in each of the eight months of rising inventory.
New listings are also up in June, growing to 6.3% above the level seen at the same time last year. Notably, June’s annual pace of new listings growth is higher than May’s rate of 5.9%. It’s the eighth consecutive month of increasing list activity, a pronounced reversal after 17 straight months of decline. Listings growth was helped in June by declining mortgage rates, with the average 30-year fixed rate dropping from 7.03% in the week ending May 30 to 6.86% in the week ending June 27, according to Freddie Mac.
The supply of homes priced from $200,000 to $350,000 is gaining particular momentum, outperforming all other price tiers in June when it comes to listing growth. Home inventory in the price range jumped by 50% year over year, rising from the 45.1% annual growth pace posted in May. It’s the fourth straight month in which supply growth in the affordable tier has outpaced other price categories, which is great news for buyers looking for starter homes. The gain, however, isn’t necessarily geographically broad-based: The increase is chiefly propelled by the rising availability of smaller homes in the South.
The South, which sees much of the country’s home construction, saw listings grow by 48.9% year over year in June, most among Census regions. The West was next with an annual inventory gain of 35.8%, followed by 21.5% in the Midwest and just 12.5% in the Northeast.
It’s important to note that inventory still remains markedly down from its pre-pandemic level. Consider that despite the recent improvement in supply, the number of homes actively for sale is still down 32.4% compared with the typical level from 2017 to 2019. But the recent uptick is nonetheless an encouraging sign that supply may finally be normalizing.
