Homeowners eager to sell may have to wait a while before a buyer comes along, the Associated Press reports. As of April, the U.S. housing market had nearly 34% more sellers than buyers shopping for a home, according to an analysis by Redfin.
Aside from April 2020, when the pandemic brought the economy and home sales activity to a standstill, there haven’t been this few buyers in the market for a home before, based on records that date back to 2013.
The trend is good news for home shoppers — if they can afford to buy at current mortgage rates and prices, which are still rising nationally, albeit more slowly.
Fewer buyers means less competition for home listings and more pressure on sellers to dial back their asking price and make other concessions to help get a deal done. That’s a stark reversal from just a few years ago, when it wasn’t uncommon for homeowners to receive offers well above their asking price from multiple home shoppers.
All told, there were 1.9 million sellers and 1.5 million prospective homebuyers in April, or 490,041 fewer people in the market for a home relative to sellers. A year ago, there were 6.5% more sellers than buyers. Two years ago, buyers outnumbered sellers by 5.3%.
The growing imbalance between buyers and sellers should pull U.S. home prices 1% lower by the end of this year, according to Redfin. Prices have already begun to decline in select metro areas.
Despite tipping more in favor of buyers, the housing market is likely to remain unaffordable for many Americans. The median U.S. home sales price has jumped 53% over the past six years, far outpacing wage growth.
And while the inventory of previously occupied U.S. homes climbed last month to the highest level since September 2020, it’s still well below pre-pandemic era levels and short on properties that most Americans can afford.
