Also, within the report, we saw first-time homebuyers were unchanged at 28% from last year. They were down slightly from 29% in the last report. Considering the rise in mortgage rates and only losing 1% of the market share, there is some resiliency to be seen.
On the inventory side, current housing inventory is 1.22 million homes for sale. This is down from 1.25 million from last month. The decrease in inventory is seen because inventory itself has crested, which it does every time this year following the normal seasonal jump in inventory over the spring and summer months. However, when you take a look at active listings, there are only 754,000 homes actually available for purchase because 38% of “inventory” is under contract and not really available. This fact really does speak to demand because a normal market sees 25% of inventory under contract.
When we put all this data together, it is still a strong housing market that has a lot of opportunity. Existing home sales did come in stronger than expected which speaks to the strength in home pricing and demand for homes. It’s simple economics 101 of supply and demand. With inventory being so low and the demand being so high, this is why home prices keep pointing higher.
Source: http://bit.ly/2MJU6mf
By: Jon Iacono