Weekly Update: One of key questions for 2013 is Will Housing inventory bottom this year?. Since this is a very important question, I’m tracking inventory weekly this year.
In normal times, there is a clear seasonal pattern for inventory, with the low point for inventory in late December or early January, and then peaking in mid-to-late summer.
The NAR data is monthly and released with a lag. However Ben at Housing Tracker (Department of Numbers) kindly sent me some weekly inventory data for the last several years. This is displayed on the graph below as a percentage change from the first week of the year.
In 2010 (blue), inventory followed the normal seasonal pattern, however in 2011 and 2012, there was only a small increase in inventory early in the year, followed by a sharp decline for the rest of the year.
So far – through March 11th – it appears inventory is increasing at a sluggish rate. Housing Tracker reports inventory is down -22.7% compared to the same week in 2012 – still falling fast year-over-year.
Click on graph for larger image.
Note: the data is a little weird for early 2011 (spikes down briefly).
The key will be to see how much inventory increases over the next few months. In 2010, inventory was up 8% by early March, and up 15% by the end of March.
For 2011 and 2012, inventory only increased about 5% at the peak and then declined for the remainder of the year.
So far in 2013, inventory is up 5.0%. I expect smaller year-over-year declines in inventory all through the year, but right now I think inventory will not bottom until 2014.