Key Highlights
- Number of homes for sale hit new low of -43% in 2021
- New listings down -23% y/y
- Median listing price rose +15.4% over last year to $346,00
- Typical days on market so far in 2021 was 76 days, 10 days fewer than one year ago
Home Buyers Chomping at the Bit in January 2021
Realtor.com’s Housing Trends Report for January 2021 indicated that buyers kicked off 2021 by being ready, willing and able to purchase a home.
According to realtor.com’s Chief Economist Danielle Hale, “Demand for housing was already strong coming into the year and we don’t see that slowing down with Millennials reaching prime home-buying age, and many remote workers still in the market for more space. (Simultaneously,) sellers failed to materialize in January, which has pushed the number of homes for sale to new lows and suggests that our new normal of rising prices and brisk sales is here to stay at least through the first half of the year.”
Combination of Strong Demand and Lack of Sellers Pushed Inventory to New Lows
For-sale homes in January hit a new low of -42.6% y/y. Though December saw an uptick in sellers, newly listed homes in January were down -23.2% y/y nationwide.
Housing inventory in the 50 largest metros declined -41.8% over last year. January’s new listings in the 50 largest metros were down -17.3% y/y. Cleveland led the pack of dwindling inventory by -37.1% followed by Jacksonville FL with its inventory being down -36.9%. Memphis rounded out the top three inventory-losing metros with a -32.6% decline.
Metros experiencing inventory upticks with newly listed homes in January included San Jose (+24.8%), San Francisco (+14.4%,) and Denver (+1.8%).
Days on the Market (DOM) Continued Falling in January
The typical home spent 76 DOM in January, 10 fewer days less than last year. The typical home in the country’s 50 largest metros spent just 60 DOM, -12 days fewer than during January 2020. Metros leading the fewer DOM time specifics included Virginia Beach (-27 days), Sacramento (-24 days), and Birmingham AL (-22 days).
Listing Prices Continued to Increase in January
Nationally, the median home listing price increased +15.4% y/y to hit $346,000. Listing price/square footage increased +17.5% y/y.
Among the country’s 50 largest metros, listing prices increased an average of +10.9%. In the Northeast, listing prices jumped +16.8%, in the West +12.3%, in the Midwest +10.4% and in the South +8.0% y/y.
Austin TX led the pack with listing prices increasing +30.2%. Rochester NY came in second with listing prices increasing +25.9%. Los Angeles came in third with its listing prices increasing +22.4% y/y.
Among all 50 of the top metros, only Miami and Minneapolis saw listing prices decline y/y in January 2021, -3.2% and -0.4% respectively.
Thanks to realtor.com.
