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The U.S. housing market has suffered from a severe inventory shortage for years now, which continues to drive up prices and worsen the home affordability crisis.
But new data shows more homes are now up for sale than at any time since the pandemic began, which some economists say is an encouraging signal that the housing market could be on the mend.
A "Home for Sale" sign in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Home inventory in the U.S. just hit its highest level in years. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Realtor.com's July housing report released Thursday found the number of homes actively for sale nationwide grew 36.6% year-over-year last month, but still remained 28.6% lower than in July 2019, before COVID hit.
A $1 MILLION STARTER HOME IS THE NEW NORMAL IN OVER 200 CITIES
While home prices recently hit another record high in May according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index released earlier this week, Realtor.com's latest report showed the share of listings with price cuts reached 18.9% last month, the highest rate since October.
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"In addition to seeing inventory levels rise to heights not seen since before the pandemic, buyers are also seeing sellers cut prices on a much larger share of homes than last year," Realtor.com senior economist Ralph McLaughlin said. "These are signs that the housing market is healing from an unhealthy state and becoming more balanced."
Here's which cities saw the greatest inventory boosts last month:
1. Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington, saw the highest year-over-year increase in home inventory of any U.S. city last month. (iStock / iStock)
Seattle saw the highest inventory gains of any other city in the U.S. last month, with a year-over-year increase of 37.3%.
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According to Realtor.com, there are currently 2,867 homes for sale in the city with a median list price of $818,000.
2. San Jose, California
San Jose came in second on the list with a 30.8% surge in home listings in July compared to the same month last year.
There are currently 1,355 homes for sale in the California city, at a median price of $1.29 million.
3. Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio, had the third-highest increase in home listings of U.S. cities last month. (iStock / iStock)
Columbus had the third-highest boost in home listings last month on an annualized basis at 17.4%.
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The city currently has 3,059 homes on the market, with a median list price of $309,000.
Gxstocks' Megan Henney contributed to this report.
