Realtor.com's Weekly Housing Trends Report Reveals Insights on Listing Lengths

With the market in continued unrest due to the global pandemic, companies have been releasing more numbers to help predict what to expect next when it comes to listings, sales, and website traffic. 

Realtor.com had released a report on its outlook for Q3 with optimistic numbers. This time, the company has announced findings of its Weekly Housing Trends Report for the week ending May 16. 

Because of the pandemic, listings have sat on the market 15 days longer than last year and new listings are down but the numbers for that are slowly increasing. Total listings are on the downward trend and median listing prices are showing minimal growth.

Danielle Hale, Chief Economist for Realtor.com, said:

"Mid-May is normally the time of year when homes sell the fastest, but today's median time on market is more like what we usually see in late February or November.

“While the real estate industry has leveraged technology to help buyers find homes and get to the closing table, virtual or physical, sellers will note that the pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the time it takes to find a buyer. Looking forward, we expect time on market figures to improve in late summer, especially as buyers try to make up for the missed spring season."

The findings showed that listings on the market are staying put 15 days (27%) longer than last year during the same week (ending on May 16). This is the largest increase in time on the market since 2013. 

New listing numbers are on the downward trend, though it’s less of a steep decrease last week than the week prior. In the week ending May 16, the decline was 28% while the weeks before, new listings were down 40%.

This is due to fewer sellers. In the week ending May 2, newly listed property numbers decreased 39% year-over-year. In the week ending May 9, newly listed property numbers decreased 29% year-over-year. And in the week ending May 16, newly listed property numbers decreased 28% year-over-year.

Median listing prices have grown 1.5% year-over-year in the week ending May 16. Realtor.com is predicting asking prices to regain momentum in the weeks to come as seller confidence spikes and buyers slowly resume their moving plans.

When it comes to active listings, they have declined 20% year-over-year in the week ending May 16. This is up from a 19% yearly decline for the weeks ending May 2 and May 9. 

Realtor.com isn’t the only company that is expecting the bounceback for the summer months. These numbers are showing that the market is stabilizing and that buyers are slowly coming back and sellers are beginning to list again as lockdown orders lax.