Available Homes For Sale Inventory Drops to New Record Low Levels in March

According to HouseCanary’s latest Market Pulse Report (MPR), homes for sale listings volume are down -11.5% year-over-year. In the month of March 2021, 284,298 net new listings were placed on the market, a -0.9% decrease over March 2020. In addition, there were 348,422 listings that went under contract nationwide, which is a 22.7% increase versus March 2020. The imbalance between supply and demand, the MPR points outs, continues to deepen. Over the last year, 3,350,038 properties went into contract, a 7.9% increase versus the 3,105,504 properties that went into contract over the year prior. In contrast, over the last 52 weeks, there have been 2,906,925 net new listings placed on the market, a -0.6% decrease versus the 2,924,254 net new listings over the year prior. These inventory levels are at a deficit of 443,113 listings over the last year, which is 261,864 listings below the prior year’s deficit of 181,250 listings. In remarks prepared for the release of the March MPR, Jeremy Sicklick, Co-Founder and CEO of HouseCanary, said, “As we enter the spring home buying season, the market is experiencing extremely limited supply compounded by an outsized level of demand that shows no signs of easing. Bidding wars have broken out across the country, and homes on the upper end of the price spectrum are selling at significantly higher rates compared to a year ago. The extreme supply shortage continues to put upward pressure on single-family home prices — a more favorable environment for sellers — and we expect this trend to continue over the coming months. Looking further ahead, however, rising mortgage rates could cool future price growth, as potential buyers continue to get priced out of the market.”