Some owners were waiting to list, hoping to maximize their potential profit; some may fear they have to act now. New listings are rising twice as fast as a year ago.

NEW YORK – Some homeowners with a yen to sell have a growing concern that they may miss out on the buyer frenzy. Signs of a slowing real estate market are growing across the country – existing-home sales and new-home sales are falling as well as pending home sales.

The inventory of homes for sale rose 9% last week compared to a year ago, according to realtor.com®. New listings are rising nearly twice as fast in the past four weeks as they did a year ago.

“Rising mortgage rates have caused the housing market to shift, and now home sellers are in a hurry to find a buyer before demand weakens further,” says Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist.

Pending home sales fell for the sixth consecutive month in April and are now at the slowest pace in nearly 10 years, the National Association of Realtors® reported Thursday.

Home sellers also see less competition from buyers. An index that measures buyer demand based on Redfin requests for home tours and home buying services was down 8% annually for the week ending May 15 – the largest decline since April 2020, when the pandemic put everything on pause.

Further, nearly one in five sellers has dropped their asking price, the highest rate since October 2019, Redfin reports.

“We used to get 10 to 15 offers on most houses. Now I’m seeing between two and six offers on a house, a good house,” Lindsay Katz, a real estate broker at Redfin in the Los Angeles area, told CNBC.

Source: “Home Listings Suddenly Jump as Sellers Worry They May Miss Out on the Red-Hot Housing Market,” CNBC (May 26, 2022)

© Copyright 2022 INFORMATION INC., Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688