Buyers hoping that a recession fueled by the coronavirus will bring another round of bargain real estate prices are likely out of luck.
Even with a pandemic, a crushed economy, and some of the highest unemployment rates we've seen in history. Median home list prices still spiked up over 3% year over year this last week, according to the most recent realtor.com® data. That's close to double the 1.5% annual rise we saw in the previous week ending 5/16.
We typically see prices heating up in late spring into summer. Just before the pandemic, home prices were increasing by about 4.4% annually in the first two weeks of March. Last week, home prices increased in about three-quarters (77) of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.
The number of active listings showed a decrease of 22% year over year in the week ending May 23. This is most likely attributed to sellers pulling their properties off the market or holding off on listing, as they didn't want strangers viewing their homes in the middle of a global pandemic. When there are more buyers competing for a limited inventory of properties, home prices tend to increase.
While an increase in inventory could help with lowering prices, record-low mortgage interest rates provide a wealth of ready and willing buyers. Stay tuned!
