The number of homes listed for sale in September fell for the first time since January according to the latest housing data of 146 metro areas released by Realtor.com.
The total number of existing homes listed for sale fell 1.68 percent from August to September with 1,944,018 single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and co-ops listed for sale during the month. The decline in inventory follows a 0.93 percent increase from July to August. Compared to a year ago, there were still 2.04 percent fewer homes available for purchase during the month, but that number continues to shrink monthly.
The median list price for an existing home in September was $199,500, down 0.20 percent from August but still 6.4 percent higher than September of last year.
California still continued to dominate in the areas with the most improved year-over-year increase in list prices by placing six in the top ten, including two in the top five. Detroit showed the most improvement with a 44.57 percent increase in annual list prices followed by the Stockton-Lodi area in California with a 41.12 improvement and the Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc area with a year-over-year gain of 32.10 percent.
Cities from Nevada rounded out the top five with Las Vegas posting a 30.69 percent gain followed by the Reno area with a 29.63 improvement over last year.
The area’s suffering the greatest decline in median list prices were the Acton, OH (-5.20%), South Bend, IN (-4.90%), Springfield, IL (-4.17%), the Cleveland-Lorain-Elria area of Ohio (-4.00%) and Cedar Rapids, IA (-3.45%).
List prices are not necessarily indicative of selling prices, but may signal market sentiment by sellers. All together, 115 of the areas saw an increase in list prices, while seven areas were unchanged from the previous year.
The average number of days that an existing home spent on the market increased to 93 in September from 92 in August but was down from 104 days in September of last year. Thirty-four out of the 146 metropolitan areas required 100 or more days to sell a home which was down from 38 the previous month.
Residents selling their homes in the southern region of South Carolina continued to wait the longest to sell their homes, averaging 174 days on the market. Residents in Oakland had the shortest wait for the 24th consecutive month, averaging 28 days on the market.
Tags: housing inventory, listed homes, home prices, median sales price, average list price
Source:
Realtor.com
Reported by Chris Moore
