The real estate markets have been slowly recovering after the economy took a hit in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic. There was always one piece of the puzzle, however, that lagged behind, and that was inventory—an already-existing challenge that was worsened by the health crisis. According to realtor.com®'s recently released Weekly Recovery Report, the last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place.
For the week ending Aug. 8, the Housing Market Recovery Index reached 105.6 nationwide—a 1.9-point increase over the previous week and 5.6 points over the pre-COVID baseline. The key to this improvement? Supply growth reached 101.7 nationwide, beating out January's levels by 1.7 points.
It's a definite improvement, but recovery is still underway. Listing growth is still down 6 percent year-over-year. But the rest of the market indicators are positive, Days on market are currently four days faster than last year, and the median listing price grew by 9.9 percent YoY.
"Seller confidence has been improving gradually after reaching its bottom in mid-April, and now it appears to have reached an important recovery milestone," said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for realtor.com®. "After five long months, sellers are back in the housing market; while encouraging, the improvement to new listings is only the first step in the long road to solving low inventory issues keeping many buyers at bay."
