The Demand Index is based on thousands of Redfin customers requesting home tours and writing offers. A level of 100 represents the historical average for the three-year period from January 2013 to December 2015.
Across the 15 metros covered by the Demand Index, there were 14.8 percent fewer homes for sale last month than there were a year prior. October marked the 29th straight month of year-over-year inventory declines in these major markets and the fourth consecutive month of double-digit declines. Meanwhile, new listings posted a much needed gain for the first time in five months, up 2.6 percent in October.
The seasonally adjusted number of buyers requesting home tours remained essentially flat from September to October, increasing 0.6 percent, while the number making offers fell 5.4 percent. Compared to last year, 43.7 percent more buyers requested tours in October and 4.4 percent more wrote offers.
“The fact that touring activity remained constant while offers dropped off in October tells us that the buyers are still there; there’s just not much to bid on,” said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. “The small boost in the number of homes newly listed for sale is certainly the bright spot of this report. Additionally, the most serious buyers can rejoice that we are nearing the holidays, which bring less competition from other buyers for homes that sellers are often very eager to unload before the new year.”
Below, we provide a slideshow of local charts for each of the metros tracked by the Redfin Housing Demand Index. If you’d like to learn more about a particular market, please email press@redfin.com.
