According to the RE/MAX National Housing Report for October, the seasonal decline of the housing market is here. Signs indicate that the softening of new home sales affected last month.
RE/MAX surveyed 53 metros for the report and noted that inventory grew for the seventh month. In short, the buyers are still hibernating.
While there were 6.9 percent fewer homes on the market year-over-year, October’s inventory grew 4.6 percent month-over-month.
Compared to October 2022, when home sales fell by 13.5 percent month-over-month, the September to October reduction in home sales was 4.6 percent. New listings dropped by five percent when compared to last month. However, that’s less than half of the 11.1 percent decrease from September to October of the previous year.
The median sales price of $410,000 remained unchanged from September and stood 2.8 percent above October 2022.
“October had some encouraging signs – especially compared to a year ago,” said Nick Bailey, president and CEO of RE/MAX, LLC. “Given the interest rate environment, it was good to see the trend of monthly inventory gains continuing, and prices appear to be stabilizing for the moment. It remains a challenging market, but demand for homes is still high – and buyers are gaining a little more leverage as time goes on.”
Market spotlight: New listings growing in Florida, San Francisco
Buyers looking for an increased number of listings should head to Florida. Miami saw a year-over-year increase in new listings of 13.9 percent, while Tampa was up 13.6 percent for the same period. Out on the west coast, San Francisco bested both Florida cities, with an increase of 14.2 percent — the highest of any metro surveyed.
Meanwhile, the markets with the most significant decrease in new listings include Las Vegas, down by 17.6 percent, Seattle at 17.5 percent, and Indianapolis at 13 percent.
Of the 53 metro areas surveyed in October 2023, newly listed homes are down five percent compared to September 2023 and down 1.3 percent year-over-year.
Two markets in the northeast experienced large year-over-year sales prices. Trenton, NJ, increased by nearly 20 percent, while Hartford, CT, was up by 11.5 percent. Cleveland, Ohio, also made the list, with an increase of 12.5 percent.
The markets with the most considerable year-over-year decrease in median sales price were Honolulu, HI, down by 4.1 percent, New Orleans, LA, at 3.7 percent, followed by a tie between Portland, OR, and San Antonio, TX, at 1.9 percent.
