The success of the U.S. residential real estate market, like any other market, is determined by supply and demand. This means we need to look at how many potential purchasers are in the market versus the number of houses that are available to buy.
With early 2020 housing data now rolling in, it’s quite evident there are two big stories impacting this year’s residential real estate market:
1. Buyer demand is already extremely strong
2. Housing supply is at a historically low level
Demand
ShowingTime is a firm that compiles data from property showings scheduled across the country. The latest ShowingTime Showing Index reveals how showings have increased in each of the country’s four regions for five months in a row.
Irvine Home Buying Demand
This February Orange County saw an increase of 28% in home buyer demand over the prior month. According to Steven Thomas, Founder, and Author of the Orange County Housing Report, this represents “…the largest increase in two years”.
Homebuyers are buying in Irvine as well. In the last 30 days, 189 homes have gone pending sale. Comparatively the same time last year only 139 homes had gone in to contract. That represents a 35% increase in homes in Irvine going in to contract compared to this time last year.
Supply
Move.com also just released information indicating that the number of homes currently for sale has declined rapidly and now sits at the lowest level in almost a decade. They explained,
“National housing inventory declined 13.6 percent in January, the steepest year-over-year decrease in more than 4 years, pushing the supply of for sale homes in the U.S. to its lowest level since realtor.com began tracking the data in 2012.”
In response to these numbers, Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at realtor.com, said,
“Homebuyers took advantage of low mortgage rates and stable listing prices to drive sales higher at the end of 2019, further depleting the already limited inventory of homes for sale. With fewer homes coming up for sale, we’ve hit another new low of for sale-listings in January.”
The decrease in inventory impacted every price range, too. Here’s a graph showing the data released by move.com:
Irvine homes for sale are not entering the market fast enough.
Super Bowl weekend marks the time when our real estate market begins to heat up. With the holiday season in our rearview mirror and Spring fast approaching, home sellers typically start putting their homes on the market. Inventory of homes for sale traditionally increases but in Irvine right now there are fewer homes coming on the market than buyers making offers on homes.
Irvine inventory decreased by 5 homes over the last two weeks according to numbers compiled by the Orange County Housing Report. Buyers are taking advantage of lower interest rates, and we are seeing multiple offers on homes that are move-in ready and priced correctly.
Bottom Line
Since there’s a historic shortage of homes for sale, putting your home on the market today could drive an excellent price and give you additional negotiating leverage when selling your house. Let’s get together to determine if listing your house now is your best move.
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