US property sales: Homes for sale surge in June, demand still not recovering

According to Realtor.com’s latest monthly housing trends report for June, inventory recovery increased at its fastest annual pace ever, with +18.7%. One of the key factors driving the jump was the entry of new sellers, who entered the market at a higher rate than in 2017-2019 (before the pandemic).

“Our June data shows that inventory recovery accelerated, registering the second consecutive month of active listing growth in nearly three years. We expect these improvements to continue, as predicted in our recently updated forecast for 2022,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.

“While we anticipate that more inventory will eventually cool the feverish pace of competition, the typical buyer has yet to see significant relief from rapid home sales and record sales prices…This first wave of improvements in the supply may be particularly timely for summer sellers looking to upgrade their starter homes, which could mean more capital to purchase a larger property,” noted the Realtor.com economist.

The report indicates that the increase in larger and more expensive houses as part of the new listings is one of the reasons why sales prices generally continue to rise despite moderating demand. In June, homes with at least 1,750 square feet accounted for more new listings, representing a 53.3%, compared to 52.7 % in 2021, than relatively smaller dwellings, with a 45.7%, compared to 50.3% in 2021.

As far as typical sales prices are concerned, these shot up to the latest record, reflecting still-high expectations of the seller. At the national level, double digits shot up again with respect to the levels of 2021 in June.

In the reported month, median US listing price hit latest record $450,000 dollars, one 16.9% more than the previous year. However, active listing prices posted a slightly smaller gain than last month (+16.6%), as well as the pending quoted prices (of 16.2% to 13.9%).

Rapporteur notes that homebuyers are still snapping up houses, but there are early signs of relief as trends market figures relative to last year show that buyers continued to acquire homes at near-record rates. However, the month-over-month data tells the beginning of a different story, with the overall market time growing from May to June for the first time since 2017.

In addition, although houses moved faster than in June 2021 at all size levels , declines were largest among larger homes for sale. Trends suggest that one possible reason why the overall pace of the market remains competitive, despite declining demand, could be a change in the mix of homebuyers, such as an increase in homebuyers removals.

Housing metrics for June 2022 at the National level

Metric: Average listing price
Change from June 2019: +13.9% (to $450,13)
Change compared to June 2019: 38.5%

Metric: Median Listing Price per Square Foot