Spring housing marketing: New listings hit highest March level in 3 years

AUSTIN - Spring is in the air, and with it is coming an inventory bump, with new listings hitting the highest March level in three years, according to a new report.

The March Housing Trends Report, published by Realtor.com, analyzed housing data for the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The Austin-based company looked at home listings, including the active inventory of existing single-family homes and condos.

March sees more home listings, but market not fully restocked

By the numbers:

The report found that buyers had more homes to choose from this March, with the number of homes actively for sale up 28.5% compared to the same time last year. That marks the 17th month in a row of year-over-year inventory growth and a slight improvement over February’s gain of 27.5%.

At the local level, all 50 of the largest metro areas posted annual inventory gains, with the most significant increases seen in San Jose, California (+67.9%), Las Vegas, Nevada (+ 67.8%) and Denver, Colorado (+67.3%). 

Housing for-sale sign. (Credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Still, even with this progress, housing inventory remained 20.2% below typical levels seen between 2017 and 2019, suggesting that the market still has catching up to do, according to Realtor.com.

Pending home sales drop; price reductions increase

The other side:

Meanwhile, pending home sales dropped 5.2% year-over-year in larger metro areas, and price drops hit their highest share for any March since 2016, indicating a level of caution from buyers.

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List prices remained relatively stable, with the national median list price at $422,450, down just 0.1% from a year ago. However, the data found that more sellers were making adjustments as 17.4% of active listings included price reductions in March.

Markets with the highest share of price reductions included Phoenix, Arizona (32.6%), Tampa, Florida (28.9%) and Jacksonville, Florida (27.7%).

What they're saying:

"The spring housing season is beginning with more sellers and a growing number of homes for sale," said Danielle Hale, the chief economist at Realtor.com. "But the high cost of buying coupled with growing economic concerns suggest a sluggish response from buyers in early spring. We're seeing a market that's rebalancing, offering more choices for shoppers." 

She said data also suggests that pricing competitively is key for sellers in today’s environment. 

"This is likely to be even more true after the mid-April Best Time to Sell, when the number of sellers grows even more swiftly. Recent improvements in mortgage rates bode well for the later spring and early-summer housing season, as long as economic concerns settle and don’t knock buyers off course," she added.