Inman News

Sellers continue to be at an advantage in July in the wake of the pandemic, with homes leaving the market at their most rapid pace since Zillow began analyzing this data in 2018.

Sellers continue to be at an advantage in July in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with homes leaving the market at their most rapid pace since Zillow began analyzing this data in 2018, according to Zillow’s Weekly Market Report for the week ending July 4. The same record pace was set the previous week.

During the week ending July 4, homes remained on the market for only about 20 days before entering the contract-signing stage, one full week faster than the same time the previous year. In Kansas City, Cincinnati and Indianapolis homes typically remained on the market for a mere five days.

Inventory remains extremely tight, with new listings down by 1.5 percent from the week before. New listings are also down by 7.9 percent month-over-month and 27.2 percent year-over-year. Total for-sale inventory is 22.4 percent lower than the same period one year ago.

Courtesy of Zillow

As a result of intensely low inventory, sellers have been able to keep their list prices steady, with just 4.1 percent of active listings cutting their price last week. That number is down from 5.6 percent that cut their listing price one year ago.

The median list price rose by 0.5 percent week-over-week to $338,760, another reflection of sellers’ advantage. That number was also up by 4.3 percent from the year before.

Still, Zillow economists most recently projected a 1.8 percent drop in prices from April 2020 to October 2020, and believe pending sales volume hit bottom in early April when they reached about half of what pending sales were in February. Zillow anticipates those pending sales may show a complete recovery by the end of 2020.