Housing inventory was unchanged from the prior week, according to the weekly data from Altos Research.
- Available inventory of single-family homes held at 472,000 last week, unchanged from the prior week and basically unchanged from the start of the year (471,000).
Price. The median home price ticked up to $410,000 last week, up slightly from last week and now up 1.0% from the start of the year ($405,100).
Supply & Demand. Homeowners continue to hold strong as only 54,000 new single-family homes were listed last week. However, that could change as demand picks up slightly with 249k single-family homes under contract. This is down 31% from the week before but is higher than the previous two weeks giving hope the bottom may be behind us.
Prediction. Mike Simonsen, CEO of Altos, says he still expects inventory to rise next month but it depends a lot on seller attitudes. “As of now we still expect inventory to climb in February like normal years. But sellers are being stingy, so that forecast could change.”