Redfin customers requesting home tours, an early indicator of housing market performance, jumped nearly 50 percent from a year ago and the number of newly listed homes for sale rose to the highest level since mid-2013, setting the stage for accelerating growth in the housing market in 2015, according to a Redfin analysis that tracks thousands of homebuyers across the country.
At this time last year, lower growth in tour requests among Redfin customers was followed by negative growth in home sales for the entire U.S. housing market.
More sellers are putting properties on the market, too. The number of homes listed for sale increased 6.3 percent in January from a year earlier. More homes went on the market in January than any other month since August 2013. Why are new listings important? Because sellers are also people who want to buy another home.
The growing supply of homes for sale already has put the brakes on rising prices, a trend we expect to continue. Price growth has slowed every month since November, and we predict median sale prices will rise only 3.5 percent this month, the smallest increase since February 2012, when prices rose 2.9 percent.
If we look at competition as an average across all markets, it seems less intense. Only 15.5 percent of homes sold were purchased for more than the asking price in January, the lowest figure since December 2011. Homes spent a median of 51 days on the market in January compared to 46 days a year earlier. And just 22 percent of homes on the market sold within two weeks, the lowest share since it was at the same percentage in December 2011.
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