Marking for “the slowest December in five years” for homebuyer activity, homes sat on the market an average of 70 days nationally last month, according to a new data from Realtor.com. That’s seven days longer than the previous December and six days longer than the previous month.
Now sitting roughly 16% below 2019 levels, housing inventory grew for the 14th consecutive month in December, with 22% more homes available for purchase than a year prior.
Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, noted it could mean good things for buyers, since “growing activity in newly listed homes and a slower market pace could spell opportunity for winter buyers who want to get ahead of the busier spring season."
"Could mean good things" – but affordability remains a big challenge. According to real estate brokerage Redfin, one of the key drivers of increasing supply is buyers' unwillingness to take the plunge on a “pile up” of homes that seem too expensive, causing those listings to stagnate.
Redfin’s latest report found that new home listings increased nearly 8% year over year in December 2024, though pending home sales posted a small decline as mortgage rates remained near 7%.
Compared with December 2023, the median listing price of homes on Realtor.com last month was down an average of -1.8% to $402,502, which is still 34.2% higher than December 2019.
Realtor.com’s data also shows that certain metropolitan areas have seen significantly higher-than-average growth in active listings than others. For instance, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla., area saw a 45.4% jump in active listings compared to a year ago, with median days on the market sitting at 79 – that’s 18 more days than December 2023.
Similarly, the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla., area had 42.4% growth in active home listings, and the median days on the market for homes was 80, up 22 days from December 2023.
It wasn’t all Florida metros, however. The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev., area had a 41.5% uptick in active listings from the prior year, and homes stayed on the market for a median of 63 days, 9 days longer than in December 2023. The San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, Calif., area saw a 41.2% rise in active home listings from December 2023; homes were on the market a median of 55 days, up 11 days from the same month a year earlier.
These listings include the active inventory of existing single-family homes and condos, townhomes, row homes, and co-ops for the given level of geography on Realtor.com.
