More Homes Sold Last Week Despite Low Inventory

Jul 24, 2020

Senior Editor

More homes went under contract last week than the week prior, and the housing market kept up its blistering pace, according to Zillow's Weekly Market Report, which covers the week ending July 18. Homes that sold last week were on the market for just more than two weeks, tying a record pace in Zillow data that dates back to 2019.

Here are some highlights of the report.

Newly pending sales return to strong weekly growth

After falling week-over-week in the past four Weekly Market Reports, newly pending sales rose 10.9% this time around. They remain 2.4% below the previous month.
Even with this increased volume, homes continued to fly off the market quickly. Homes that were sold last week typically went under contract after just 15 daysii, same as the previous week and eight days faster than last year.

With sales strong and no uptick in new listings, inventory falls to new record low

New for-sale listings dropped 0.2% from the previous week, and are now down 14.6% year over year.
For-sale inventory continues to fall, down 0.9% week over week and 3.3% from the previous month. The uptick in sales pushed total inventory down more than new listings last week.
There are now 25.5% fewer homes on the market than this time last year.

Prices continue to rise

In the first week of June, the median sale price was $262,600, up 1% year over year.
As of last week, the median list price was up 5.3% higher than a year earlier, now at $341,640.
With demand strong, only 4.2% of listings had cut their price. That's 1.3 percentage points lower than the same week a year ago.

Virtual home buying and selling is growing in popularity

Americans say they are more likely to buy or sell a home virtually, and virtual tours have become more popular during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Zillow surveyiii.
More than a third of Americans (36%) say they are more likely to try to buy a home entirely online during the coronavirus pandemic, and 30% say after the current outbreak ends, they would do the same.
During the pandemic, 43% say they are more likely to try to sell a home entirely online. When the current outbreak ends, 33% anticipate they would still be more likely to try and sell a home entirely online.

About the author

Keith Griffin

Senior Editor

Keith Griffin is a senior editor at NMP.

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Jul 24, 2020

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