The housing supply shortage is expected to get more extreme as homebuyer demand continues to outweigh inventory levels, a new study found.
As the spring home buying season begins, HouseCanary’s latest Market Pulse report compared data between March 2021 and March 2020 and found the volume of new monthly listings nationwide to be down 11.5% year over year. Last month, 284,298 new listings were placed on the market, a 0.9% decrease compared to March 2020. Additionally, 348,422 listings went under contract across the country, a 22.7% increase from March 2020.
New listing activity year-over-year decreased by 24.3% for homes in the $200,000 and under range. Homes listed between $200,000 and $400,000 had a decrease of 13.2%. New listing activity increased in houses priced above $400,000. New home listings between $400,000 and $600,000 were up 15.1%, and homes priced from $600,000 to $1 million were up 47%.
Home price appreciation continues to accelerate as the ongoing supply shortage drives prices up, the report found. That shortage is expected to continue over the coming months. The median single-family home price for the week ending April 2 was $378,408, up 16.5% year over year. The median closed price was $367,242, up 22.4%. Additionally, the month-over-month median price of single-family listings was up 2.2% and median prices of closed listings were up 5.4%.
“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,” HouseCanary Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Sicklick said in a press release. “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.