Despite continued COVID-19 cases and recent civil unrest, the U.S. housing market continues to recover from the recent pandemic-caused slowdown. (Photo: Avi Waxman, Unsplash),
Tom Kalinski, RE/MAX of Boulder
Don’t count the housing market nationwide down and out yet.
Despite continued COVID-19 cases and recent civil unrest, the U.S. housing market continues to recover from the recent pandemic-caused slowdown.
For the week ending June 6, the Realtor.com® Housing Market Recovery Index was 88.8 nationwide, 11.2 points below January’s baseline – before the pandemic impacted the U.S. economy. This shows a 5.7 point increase over the lowest point so far, which occurred on the week ending May 2.
On closer look, the good news extends to Colorado. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood ranked twentieth nationwide for the week closing June 6. Year-over-year, prices are down a slight 1.3 percent, new listings decreased 15 percent, and median days on market rose 9 percent, while median list price rose 4 percent, according to Realtor.com’s weekly core aggregate compared by metro area.
While some believe that now is not a good time to sell a home, the data says the opposite.
“Home prices are back to their pre-COVID pace and we’re seeing listings spend slightly less time on the market than last week. But the housing market still needs more sellers in order to meet the surge in demand. Looking forward, if we don’t get the inventory we need, we’ll see prices rise even more and homes sell faster later this summer,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com.
But what’s “hot” in today’s market?
A number of Colorado metros rank in the top 300 hottest metros nationwide. See the chart below for the score.
Colorado Metros Hotness Rank
• Colorado Springs – 3
• Pueblo – 4
• Denver-Aurora-Lakewood – 92
• Greeley – 143
• Boulder – 153
• Grand Junction – 155
• Fort Collins – 163
Source: realtor.com/research/data.
The proprietary index leverages a weighted average of Realtor.com®
search traffic, median list prices, new listings, and median time on market and compares it to the January 2020 market trend, as a baseline for pre-COVID market growth. The overall index is set to 100 in this baseline period. The higher a market’s index value, the higher its recovery and vice versa.
Here’s a look at the U.S. for the first week of June, according to Realtor.com:
New listings
Declines dropped 21 percent over last year – a slight improvement over last week and a significant improvement compared to early May. More than half of large metros continue to see smaller declines this week, including New York, Boston, and San Francisco.
Asking prices
Price gains caught up to the pre-COVID pace, increasing 4.3 percent compared to 4.4 percent the first two weeks of March.
Total active listings
Sellers are not entering the market at the typical pace for the housing season’s busiest time of year. Total active listings declined 25 percent compared to a year ago.
Time on market
The week saw the first weekly decline in time on market since mid-March, with days on market one day faster than last week.
For more information about the index report, please visit: realtor.com/research/housing-market-recovery-index.
For the latest weekly housing trends and index data, please visit:
Index: realtor.com/research/housing-market-recovery-index-trends-june-6-data.
Housing trends: realtor.com/research/weekly-housing-trends-view-data-week-june-6-2020.
By Tom Kalinski. Tom is the broker/owner of RE/MAX of Boulder, the local residential real estate company he established in 1977. He was inducted into Boulder County’s Business Hall of Fame in 2016 and has a 40-year background in residential and commercial real estate. For questions, e-mail Tom at [email protected], call 303.441.5620, or visit boulderco.com.
