A new report from real estate listing firm Zillow shows that, while the for-sale housing inventory ticked up slightly in May after falling for nine months straight, the typical time of a home on the market fell to just six days and prices hit record highs.
“May brought a long-awaited bump in inventory nationwide, though it did little to immediately cool record-high home value appreciation,” according to the May 2021 Zillow Market Report.
Housing stock rose 3.9 percent in May from April, the first such rise since July 2020, although inventory nationwide remains down 31.2 percent from a year ago, the report says.
“While the seasonal boost in inventory is a welcome sign that the ongoing inventory crunch may finally be starting to ease, it will take a while for the gains to immediately make an impact on a red-hot housing market in which demand for homes far exceeds the available supply,” according to Zillow data analyst Treh Manhertz.
In May, the typical home appreciated in value by 13.2 percent over the year and 1.7 percent over the month, which are both record highs in Zillow data that goes back 25 years. The price of the median home rose to $287,148.
Rent has also surged, with the typical rent rising 2.3 percent from April to May, hitting $1,747 per month, the biggest monthly bump since 2015, according to the report.
The supply crunch and strong demand have also driven the amount of time a typical home spends on the market before being snapped up to a record low of six days in May, one day less than in April. In some markets, like in metro Ohio and Missouri, the typical time on market was just three days.
Zillow economists expect the red-hot housing market to not “to let up anytime soon,” predicting home values to rise by 17.9 percent through the end of the year.
BY TOM OZIMEK
