The total number of U.S. homes for sale climbed 5% during the four weeks ended March 17, the biggest year-over-year uptick since May 2023, according to Redfin.
As of March 17, there were roughly 795,645 active listings.
There were roughly 88,902 new listings added during that same four weeks – and increase of 15% and the biggest increase since June 2021.
The surge in listings is bringing some buyers back to the market, the firm says. Mortgage-purchase applications and Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for tours and other buying services from Redfin agents—are each up roughly 9% month over month.
Increasing inventory has yet to dampen price growth. The median U.S. home-sale price is up 5.3% year over year, the second-biggest increase since October 2022, and the median monthly mortgage payment is just $31 shy of its all-time high due to elevated mortgage rates and prices.
Redfin economists expect mortgage rates to gradually decline throughout 2024, an outlook that was little changed in the wake of this week’s Fed press conference, in which the Fed held interest rates steady.
Photo: Todd Kent