Home buyers are feeling a bit of relief as inventory levels and price cuts rose in July, according to the Realtor.com July housing report. Homes actively for sale grew 36.6% compared to July 2023, hitting a post-pandemic high, while the share of listings with price cuts reached 18.9%, the highest rate since October.
“The inventory scars of the pandemic-era housing market are continuing to fade,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist of Realtor.com. “Although active listings are still short of the pre-pandemic mark, we saw the gap continue to narrow meaningfully as active listings hit a post-pandemic high.”
Hale continues, “As sellers continue to list homes and buyers become choosier, the time a home spends on the market is extending, thereby helping the housing market move in a more buyer-friendly direction. In response, sellers are curbing expectations and reducing listing prices more often which could set the stage for more sales this fall, especially if mortgage rates continue to decline.”
Growing for the ninth straight month and surpassing last month’s rate of 22.4%, nationwide the total number of homes for sale increased by 22.6%.
The South and the West experienced the most gains, with a growth in listings of 47.6% and 35.4%, respectively. Both regions are also closing the pre-pandemic and present-day gap in inventory the most, with the South’s inventory hovering 14% below pre-pandemic levels and the West’s inventory 19.4% below.
Inventory in the Midwest and the Northeast still sits below pre-pandemic levels by 46.8% and 55.5%, respectively.
“In addition to seeing inventory levels rise to heights not seen since before the pandemic, buyers are also seeing sellers cut prices on a much larger share of homes than last year,” says Realtor.com senior economist Ralph McLaughlin. “These are signs that the housing market is healing from an unhealthy state and becoming more balanced.”
In July, all 50 of the top metros saw a share of listings with price cuts increase year-over-year. The metros that saw the highest share include Denver (32.4%), Austin (31.4%), and Tampa (30.6%).
Newly listed homes on the market grew by 3.6% this month compared with the same time last year. Although measurably lower than June 2024’s 6.6% figure, this marks the ninth consecutive month of an increased number of newly listed homes year over year.
The time homes are spending on the market is growing in response to the rise of inventory. The typical home spent 50 days on the market, which is the fourth month in a row where time spent on market is more than it was compared to 2023.
While it’s five more days than the time the typical home spent on the market in July 2023, it’s still 8 days less than the time spent on the market in July from 2017 to 2019.
