\n(NASDAQ: RDFN) \u2014 There are five months of for-sale supply on the market nationwide, up from 4.4 months a year earlier and the most since early 2019. That\u2019s according to a new report<\/a> from Redfin (redfin.com<\/a>), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. Inventory is piling up because more sellers are listing their homes while fewer buyers are wading into the market.<\/p>\n
\nNew listings rose 7.4% year over year during the four weeks ending February 9, hitting their highest level for any comparable time period since 2022. Just after this time in 2022, mortgage rates started rising quickly, encouraging many homeowners to stay put to hold onto low rates. Now, that lock-in effect is starting to ease<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nPending home sales, meanwhile, fell 6%, similar to the declines Redfin has seen since the start of the year. The typical home that sold in that period took 57 days to go under contract\u2014the longest span since March 2020, when the onset of the pandemic nearly ground the housing market to a halt. Sales are slow mostly because housing costs are high, with the median monthly housing payment sitting just $46 below its all-time high. Home-sale prices are up 4.3% year over year, and the weekly average mortgage rate is 6.89%, down slightly from a week earlier but still more than double the average pre-pandemic and early-pandemic rates.<\/p>\n \nBut more homebuyers may come out of the woodwork soon. Redfin\u2019s Homebuyer Demand Index\u2014a measure of tours and other buying services from Redfin agents\u2014is up slightly from the six-month low it dropped to in late January, and agents report they\u2019re seeing more house hunters.<\/p>\n \n\u201cI\u2019ve met with a lot of potential sellers over the last few weeks. Listings typically pick up in March or April, but this year it\u2019s happening earlier,\u201d said Fernanda Kriese<\/a>, a Redfin Premier<\/a> agent in Las Vegas. \u201cSome of the sellers are listing because they bought just a few years ago and their home value isn\u2019t increasing as quickly as they\u2019d like, so they\u2019re cutting their losses and moving to a less expensive home. Some are retirees who are downsizing. Buyers have been sidelined this year because of high mortgage rates and uncertainty surrounding politics and the economy, but some are starting to come off the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n Redfin agents report uncertainty among buyers and sellers in areas with a lot of federal employees<\/b><\/p>\n \nRedfin agents in Washington, D.C. and other places with a high concentration of government workers report that the new presidential administration is impacting local housing markets. Return-to-office mandates for federal workers, and uncertainty about whether certain government employees will keep their jobs, are motivating some people to buy new homes, but discouraging others from buying or selling.<\/p>\n Pending sales are ticking up in Los Angeles after wildfires<\/b><\/p>\n \nPending home sales in the Los Angeles metro rose 3.4% year over year during the four weeks ending February 9, the first increase after five weeks of declines.<\/p>\n \nIt\u2019s possible the uptick stems from the Palisades and Eaton fires, which destroyed thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area in early January. Some affluent people who were displaced by the fires may be buying new homes. Please note that this is just one early data point; Redfin will keep an eye on the Los Angeles market to see how pending sales and listings shake out over the next several months.<\/p>\n \nFor Redfin economists\u2019 takes on the housing market, please visit Redfin\u2019s \u201cFrom Our Economists<\/a>\u201d page.<\/p>\n Leading indicators<\/b><\/p>\n\n
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