• Active inventory declined, with for-sale homes lagging behind year ago levels by 5.1%. This past week marked the 12th consecutive decline in the number of homes actively for sale compared to the prior year, however the gap narrowed compared to the previous week’s -5.2% figure.
• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were down again this week, by 7.1% from one year ago. For the past 62 weeks, there have been fewer newly listed homes compared to the same time one year ago. The annual gap has generally narrowed since late June as the data lapped last year’s lower listing trend. While the number of newly listed homes increased from July to August (which is not typical in this season), new home listings have declined as is typical in the first two weeks in September.
Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com.
Inventory was down 5.1% year-over-year – this was the twelfth consecutive week with a YoY decrease following 58 consecutive weeks with a YoY increase in inventory.