New listings are down nearly 45% in April compared to March as the COVID-19 pandemic pushed housing inventory to a new April low, realtor.com® reported Tuesday.
The housing market—already starved for new listings prior to the pandemic—now faces an even tighter supply. The Northeast saw the largest drop in new listings, down 59.4% in April, realtor.com® reports. The Midwest saw a 49.5% drop, while the West posted a 44.1% decrease and the South a 31.4% decrease.
“The good momentum we saw at the start of the year has helped to somewhat insulate the housing market from the coronavirus’ negative impact on buyer and seller confidence across the U.S.,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “Just how significantly the housing market is impacted by the pandemic will depend on how effective the country is at containing the virus and how the economy responds. If all goes well, we could see buyers returning to the market aggressively this summer to make up for the spring they lost.”
The declining number of new listings combined with the number of sellers who delisted their properties prompted the total number of homes for sale nationwide to decrease 15.3% in April annually, realtor.com® reports.
The metro areas seeing the largest declines in housing inventories in April were Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wis., down 46.1%; Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md., down 38.7%; and Providence-Warwick, R.I.-Mass, down 29.3%.
Source: realtor.com®
