Where is the housing market recovering

After reaching all-time high levels in February, home sales dropped sharply in March, during what was set to be the busiest home-buying season in history. Health concerns and lockdowns, along with record levels of unemployment and economic uncertainty, dramatically transformed the real estate outlook and its dynamics. As home buyers and sellers adjust to the new normal, market conditions continue to evolve rapidly, and remain more local than ever. In light of the rapid transformation in the real estate landscape, realtor.

The drop in the growth of active online home shoppers over the past couple of weeks can be partially attributed to all-time lows in the inventory of existing homes for sale. While overall online home shopping activity has lost the momentum it had last fall and earlier this winter, interest in homes for sale remains strong, as the number of home shoppers viewing each property remains near all-time highs.

This week marks the end of the four-week trend that saw listing price growth decelerate. Crucially, homes continue to move at a record pace for this time of the year and faster than in pre-pandemic times. Last week, the supply component increased to This week, metros in all regions saw improvements to their recovery index scores, mostly driven by an improvement in the growth rate of newly listed homes. Southern metros improved most, led by Austin, which has seen a flood of interest from western metros, rapidly decreasing time on market, and accelerating listing prices.

Locally, a total of 38 markets have remained above the recovery benchmark, five more than the previous week. Twelve markets remain now below the recovery pace, at least temporarily. The overall recovery index is showing the greatest recovery in Austin, Denver, San Antonio, Riverside, and Sacramento.

The most recovered markets for home-buying interest include primarily southern metros such as Tampa, Austin, Houston, Orlando, and Miami with a housing demand growth index between and The most recovered markets for home prices include Austin, Buffalo, Detroit, Richmond, and Riverside, with a home price growth index between and The most recovered markets for time-on-market include Austin, Riverside, Portland, Denver, and Los Angeles, with a pace of sales growth index between and Despite many states reporting sustained declines in daily new cases of COVID, local measures to curb the spread, as well as general-sentiment about the pandemic, continue to slow the entry of new listings to the market.

The markets which are seeing newly listed homes grow most quickly compared to baseline are San Jose, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, and San Antonio, with a new listings growth index between and While home-selling sentiment has picked up in January over December , it remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. Housing market disruptions due to the ongoing pandemic have once again materialized in a greater reduction of newly listed homes for sale compared to last year.

Buyer activity remains fairly stable while sellers again pulled back this past week. Home listing prices, while still growing at a blistering double-digit pace, grew more slowly than the previous week.

This is unfortunately not expected to provide immediate relief to buyers as demand remains elevated and supply remains tight. The New Supply Growth Index registered a large loss, declining by 7. In the last several weeks, the pool of active buyers steadily ramped up as observed by a rapidly growing number of home searches on realtor.

This week, growth stumbled, likely due to the large decline in newly listed homes and worsening availability of existing homes. Buyers remain highly motivated by low interest rates but are frustrated by a shrinking number of homes available. If the trend continues, it could provide some relief to buyers.

However, with inventory failing to see visible improvement, and buyer demand remaining elevated, asking prices may continue to rise near-record levels even as short term economic and COVID concerns linger. Last week, the supply component decreased to This week, metros in all regions other than the South saw declines, primarily driven by another tumble in the growth rate of newly listed homes.

Western metros saw the most marked decrease in the growth of new listings compared to the previous week. Locally, a total of 33 markets have remained above the recovery benchmark, four less than the previous week. Mostly driven by a large drop in the growth rate of newly listed homes, 17 markets are now below the recovery pace, at least temporarily.

The most recovered markets for home-buying interest include Riverside, Austin, Houston, Miami, and San Antonio; with a housing demand growth index between and Louis, with a home price growth index between and The most recovered markets for time-on-market include Portland, Denver, Austin, Riverside, and Los Angeles; with a pace of sales growth index between and Despite many states reporting sustained declines in daily new cases of COVID, local measures to curb the spread as well as general-sentiment about the pandemic have likely once again slowed home selling activity.

The only markets which are still seeing newly listed homes grow more quickly than last January are San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, Portland, and Los Angeles, with a new listings growth index between and Buyer activity continues to accelerate while inventory tightness shows no signs of letting up heading into February.

The overall index still remains above the pre-COVID baseline, with buyer demand and the pace of sales continuing to accelerate while price growth remains stable, but high, and new home listings continue to lag. This is unfortunately not expected to provide relief to buyers as demand keeps surging and supply remains tight. The New Supply Growth Index remained stubbornly low, declining by 0. In the last four weeks, the pool of active buyers has steadily ramped up as observed by a rapidly growing number of home searches on realtor.

Buyers remain highly motivated by low interest rates but frustrated by a shrinking number of homes available. However, with inventory failing to see visible improvement, and demand notably bouncing back, asking prices may continue to rise near record levels even as short term economic and COVID concerns fail to disappear. Last week, the supply component fell slightly to This week, metros in most regions remained fairly stable compared to the prior week, with the exception of western metros, which saw a marked increase in the growth of new listings compared to last year.

Locally, a total of 37 markets have remained above the recovery benchmark, up from 36 the previous week. Most markets have struggled to sustain the feverish pace of growth observed before the holidays, with 13 markets dipping below the recovery pace, at least temporarily. The most recovered markets for home-buying interest include Austin, Riverside, Houston, Miami and Seattle; with a housing demand growth index between and The most recovered markets for home prices include Austin, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Riverside and Richmond, with a home price growth index between and The most recovered markets for time-on-market include Los Angeles, Portland, Riverside, Louisville, and Denver; with a pace of sales growth index between and Interestingly, markets where new supply is improving the fastest tend to be higher priced than those that have yet to see improvement, suggesting sellers are more active in the more expensive markets.

Despite a slower than anticipated return of buyers and sellers this January, the U. The overall index still remains above the pre-COVID baseline, with all measures growing faster than this time last year, with the exception of new listings. The pace of sales and price gains remained stable but well above pre-pandemic pace and with no clear signs of deceleration.

In the last four weeks, the pool of active buyers has continued to grow but at a visibly slower rate than observed in the fall. Buyers remain motivated but watchful of interest rates and frustrated by a shrinking number of homes available. With inventory failing to see visible improvement, asking prices continue to rise near record levels even as short term economic and COVID concerns fail to disappear. Despite the moderate deceleration, homes continue to move at a record pace for this time of the year and faster than in pre-pandemic times.

ET First Published: March 6, at a. ET By Andrea Riquier. Behind highest U. GE is breaking up, but it wants a bunch of its debt back first Barron's: U.

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