It was a rather ordinary month for the residential housing market in October, based on a preliminary analysis of realtor.com® data. But after we saw sales declines in both August and September, we don’t see any reason to complain. Yes, boring can be good.
“October saw little change in the for-sale housing market other than the typical seasonal decline in demand and inventory,” said Jonathan Smoke, our chief economist. “Collectively, the inventory metrics speak to a stable and strong housing market that has moved into the slower part of the year.”
Those metrics include list prices, which remain consistent and are up 6% over last year. The median list price is $232,000, virtually the same as in September.
Still, we’re continuing to see signs of a fall slowdown. Total listings declined, leaving buyers with fewer choices. Smoke said he expected listing inventory for the month to trend down 2% from September, once all the numbers are in. Listings also are moving more slowly than in September, although it’s only a slight change. The median age of inventory is now 81 days, up one day from September but down three days, or 7%, from last year.
Smoke’s team reviewed listing views by market as an indicator of demand and median days on market as an indicator of supply. This analysis led to the identification of the 20 hottest medium-size to large markets in the country.
These markets receive 1.8 to 3.6 times the number of views per listing as the national average.
They’re also seeing inventory move 30 to 47 days more quickly than the rest of the U.S. They have also seen days on market drop by a combined average of 19% year over year.
The hottest markets list itself also remains relatively stable. Denver regained the top spot. Los Angeles, San Jose, and Denver gained the most relative strength in the ranked markets, while Boulder and Fort Wayne broke into the top 20.