March 2024 Housing Market Update: New Listings spike

Realtor.com just released their Housing Market data for February 2024 and the data showed some interesting trends. Most notably - a surprise surge in new listings from home sellers across America. A development that should result in strong YoY inventory growth and a seasonably high share of price cuts.

Trends that are positive signs for homebuyers in the 2024 Housing Market. The market freeze seems to be thawing, and there could be a lot more homes for sale (at lower prices) soon.

Sellers Finally Getting Off the Sidelines?

The big story of the 2023 Housing Market was how hesitant existing homeowners were to list their homes for sale. A hesitancy caused by a combination of the "lock-in" effect of 3-4% mortgage rates to go along with general disdain for listing into a down housing market with low buyer demand. Ultimately, this shortage of new listings resulted in home prices remaining high in 2023 and early 2024.

However, this trend now looks to be changing, with Realtor.com reporting 339,370 new seller listings hitting the market in February 2024.  That was a hefty 11.3% increase over the same month one year ago. Higher seller listings, in conjunction with still suppressed buyer demand, helped Active Listings on the housing market stabilize in a month where they typically decline.

Listings could be increasing for a variety of reasons. Perhaps sellers who delayed listing their homes last year are finally deciding to take the plunge now that interest rates seem set to stay "higher for longer". Maybe some distressed homeowners are deciding to sell before they get foreclosed on. Perhaps investors are looking to exit the market.

Of course - the graph above highlights two things. First: how listings levels are very seasonal. And second: how we will need to continue to see sustained improvements in new seller listings in future months to bring inventory back into balance. The hope is that by the summer there will be 450k-500k new listings each month.  

Markets with the Biggest Increase in New Listings

But there were widespread differences across America in terms of where new listings increased the most. Data available on Reventure App shows that the biggest increase in new seller listings came on the northern side of America, in states like North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Maine, and Washington, which all experienced a hefty 25%+ YoY increase in new listings hitting the market in February 2024.

Listings also increase substantially in the central Midwest (Iowa, Nebraska) as well throughout the Southeast (Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee). Meanwhile, new listings remained subdued in the Mountain Regions of America and the Northeast.

Ultimately - more new listings are a good sign for the Housing Market any way you slice it. It means more inventory. And could mean price declines in markets where the inventory for sale goes up enough.  

Sellers are starting to cut the Price early in 2024. Especially in Florida.

Another interesting component of Realtor.com's February 2024 Housing Market data release was the Seller Price Cut information. In particular, it seems like sellers are getting an "early jump" on cutting the price of their listings this year.

With 19.6% of sellers reducing the price on their listings last month. This is an abnormally high figure for this time of year and is significantly higher than the level of price cuts we saw in the depths of the pandemic in 2021 and 2022.  

You can also see that this level of seller price cuts is higher than what occurred in February 2023 when 17.5% of sellers dropped the price.

The biggest surge in seller price cuts is happening in Florida. Where 28.7% of sellers decided to reduce the price last month. This was the highest rate of seller price cuts in Florida going back to at least 2017. And it's over 4x higher than the level of price cuts that occurred just two years ago.

Track Listings and Price Cut Data on Reventure App

Understanding the trends in new listings hitting the market as well as price cuts will give you greater insight into the future direction of your local housing market. Utilize Reventure App to perform this type of research for the housing market in your city and ZIP code so you can make a more informed home-buying decision in 2024.

Both of these data points are available in the "Market Trends" data section on Reventure App and can be viewed under a premium plan for $39/month.