Housing Supply Warms Up For Springtime

The total number of homes for sale saw a 5% incline during the four weeks ending March 17, the largest year-over-year increase since May 2023, per Redfin. New listings, on the other hand, surged 15% – the largest increase since June 2021.

The inrush of new listings is bringing some buyers back to the market. Mortgage-purchase applications and Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for tours and other buying services from Redfin agents—are each up roughly 9% month over month.

However, escalating inventory has yet to cool price growth. The median sales price is up 5.3% year-over-year, marking the second biggest increase since October 2022. Last week, the median home sale price declined in only one metro area, San Antonio, Texas (-1.5%). 

The median monthly mortgage payment is just $31 shy of its all-time high due to mortgage rates and prices continuing to remain high. Redfin economists expect mortgage rates to gradually decline throughout 2024, an outlook that shifted in the wake of last week’s Fed press conference, in which the Fed held interest rates steady.