Spring Housing Market Listings 200,000 Lower Than Average

This spring’s housing market is poised to put 2020’s hectic market to shame as home listings drop 200,000, says CNBC. The sharp drop in new listings can be attributed to recent severe weather. At the end of February, there were just half the number of listings compared to February 2020. Realtor.com’s chief economist says cold and snowstorms likely put sellers on pause. For the last four years, January and February typically had about 207,000 more listings than 2021 has seen. If listings were to catch up, listings would need to grow 25% annually this month and next.

While the biggest drops in new supply were in Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Missouri, declines were widespread across the country. The only major cities seeing gains in inventory were San Jose, California, and San Francisco and Denver.

The increasingly tight supply of homes for sale continues to fuel the fire under home prices. In January, prices were up just over 10% year over year, according to CoreLogic. Rising mortgage rates are now hurting affordability but so far have not thrown any cold water on home prices.

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