Homes in the U.S. Are Taking Longer to Sell Now Than at Any Point During the Peak of the Pandemic

The U.S. housing market slowed down in January. GETTY IMAGES

January appears to have marked the end of the lightning-fast property market that became the taxing norm during the peak of the pandemic, according to a report Friday from Redfin.

Across the U.S. the typical home sold last month was on the market for 51 days, or more than seven weeks, the longest time they have taken to sell since February 2020—just as the pandemic was starting to take hold, and almost twice as long as the 27 days homes were selling in during the same time last year, the online property portal said.

Partly responsible for the slowdown is dwindling competition among buyers.

Roughly two of every five, or 42.1%, of home offers written by Redfin agents faced a bidding war in January, the lowest level since April 2020. That’s down from 43.1% a month earlier and 68% a year earlier.

Indeed, the market failed to tempt any significant number of potential home buyers away from the safety of the sidelines last month.

The number of pending home sales nationwide ticked up 0.5% compared to December but were down 29.4% when compared to a year earlier.

“A dip in mortgage rates brought some buyers off the bench in January, but the housing-market recovery was tempered by still-high housing costs and a limited number of homes being listed for sale,” Taylor Marr, Redfin’s deputy chief economist, said in the report.

With many homes now lingering longer with a for-sale sign staked out front, the overall supply of housing has ticked up 14.5% from January 2022, which is when active listings hit a record low point.

New listings, though, didn’t help prop up the number.

“There were fewer new listings in January than at any point on record, with the exception of the start of the pandemic,” Mr. Marr said. “That hampered demand because it meant that many of the buyers who were still in the market had a tough time finding a home that met their needs.”

The shortage of homes for sale also buoyed home prices, he added, which ticked up 1.5% annually to $383,249.

Via Mansion Global