As we go deeper into 2024, the housing market is starting to see relief in terms of inventory and price corrections. In addition, homes are taking longer to sell compared to a year ago. On top of that, most listings are being heavily discounted. These trends indicate a changing market with new opportunities for buyers and new challenges for sellers.
The typical time a listing is on the market has jumped to 66 days. That’s about five days longer than it was last February of 2020. It further represents the longest time since February 2020 on record.
As Realtor.com reported last week, 16.8% of all available listings had a cut on their asking prices in February. This marks a 2.2 percentage point uptick from last year, hitting the highest activity for the month of February since 2021.
The final measure of supply—new listings—has ticked higher, up 0.1% from last week. As reported by Realtor.com, this trend has persisted for eight weeks in a row now.
February for-sale inventory was 27.5% higher than one year ago, Realtor.com’s latest monthly housing report shows. This significant rise in the number of homes on the market gives prospective buyers a better selection to choose from.
In fact, the National Association of Realtors recently confirmed that homes selling over list price has plummeted. In January, that number dropped to only 15%. That’s down from 16% last month and last year.
On average, homes that were listed got 2.6 offers from buyers. This is an improvement over 2.1 offers last month but flat relative to 2.7 offers a year ago. That’s a sign of solid underlying demand from buyers, but not as frenzied as we saw during the height of the pandemic.
Getting the price right to start is really important. - Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com
All of these changes to the housing market mean that sellers must be strategic in their sales.
Hire an experienced local agent who's going to know your neighborhood like the back of their hand. - Amanda Pendleton, Zillow's home trend expert
