Yes, property prices have gone up, and yes, there is a shortage of property listings. It's just supply and demand – anyone looking to buy a home in the US will tell you it was a tough year. But as the pandemic subsided, there has been some improvement, according to a report by Realtor.com on the housing market from April 2021: The number of newly listed houses rose by around 33 percent compared to last April and a total of 43 percent in metropolitan area.
That is still not nearly enough to meet demand, also because the houses were sold so quickly. In April, a U.S. home was typically on the market for 43 days before it was bought, compared with about 63 days a year ago and about 61 days in the three years before that. As a result, the total inventory of listings in April was still down 53 percent year over year, which, according to Realtor.com, helped push the average list price of U.S. homes to a record $ 375,000.
Of course, not every city or region has experienced similar buyer behavior. Where has the inventory decreased the most and how has this affected list prices in these areas?
Of the 50 largest US metropolitan areas, the drop in listings in April over a year was greatest in Austin, Texas, where a 73 percent drop in listings drove the average listing price to $ 515,000, an increase of about $ 515,000 Corresponds to 41 percent. It took the average Austin home just 18 days to sell to Denver (15 days) and Columbus, Ohio (16 days).
The number of available homes was most stable in San Francisco, declining about 2 percent over the year, and other expensive metropolitan areas followed: San Jose, California, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. But prices rose in all of them. In fact, Memphis and Milwaukee were the only subways in the top 50 to see list prices drop, if only by 4 percent or less.
Using data from Realtor.com's report, this week's chart focuses on the 20 metros that saw the largest inventory losses in April compared to last year.
