Dive Brief:
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California, Colorado and Texas once again led the pack in Realtor.com’s October rankings of the markets where for-sale inventory is moving the fastest. The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA, metropolitan statistical area topped the list, followed by Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO; Vallejo-Fairfield, CA; Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX; and Fort Wayne, IN, rounding out the top five spots.
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The median age of listings on the real estate website in October is 79 days, up two days from September but down two days from a year ago.
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Inventory in the MSAs ranked in this month’s Hottest Markets index are moving off the market 18 to 45 days faster than those in the rest of the U.S.
Dive Insight:
An unusually strong October is propelling home sales, but inventory conditions remain tight as new properties aren’t coming online fast enough to replace them, according to Realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. October experienced the biggest decline in for-sale inventory on the real estate listing website since July 2015.
The cities making this month’s Hottest Markets index heavily favored the South and West regions, with 11 in California alone. That mirrors the findings of the National Association of Realtors pending home sales index, which reported strong activity in the South and West regions during September and a modest monthly gain that beat analyst expectations for the period.
Sales of previously owned homes also rose September. According to the NAR, the month’s 3.2% uptick from August was driven by first-time buyers entering the market in their largest numbers in four years. This group is making up an ever-larger share of buyers, with individuals ages 25 to 34 accounting for one-third of homebuyers in September, based on data collected by Realtor.com.
However, inventory remains tight, with Realtor.com noting 11% fewer listings on the website in September compared to a year ago. The Commerce Department reported a 4.8-month supply of new homes on the market last month compared to a 5.8-month inventory a year ago.