By Margaret Heidenry | Realtor
Mark your calendars: The month of May might go down as a turning point in the red-hot real estate market that’s been scalding homebuyers for the past few years.
The number of new listings that hit the market last month rose for the first time since June 2019, according to a new report from Realtor.com®. As a result, May home shoppers had 8% more active listings to scroll through compared with this point last year.
“We’re seeing more homeowners decide to sell,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist of Realtor.com. “Buyers can expect more inventory going forward, more homes to choose from.”
Granted, there are still only half as many homes available for sale compared with pre-pandemic levels two years ago. Nonetheless, this recent uptick could offer a glimmer of hope for buyers who’ve been scrambling for homes amid bidding wars and way-over-asking offers.
“For context, even though we’re seeing inventory grow, it remains quite low,” says Hale. “This is one of the reasons that we are still seeing home prices go up and homes [spending] a record-low amount of time on the market for sale.”
