A new weekly measure of housing market health from the National Association of Realtors’ consumer website compares current traffic, price, new listing, and time on market trends to where they were in January, before the coronavirus’ impact. According to the most recent results, the index improved 1 point last week and is now at 88.8, 11.2 points below the baseline of 100. The index shows home prices are continuing to increase while time on market is beginning to fall. In short, home buyers are returning faster than sellers and it’s causing homes for sale to sell faster and at higher prices. Danielle Hale, chief economist for the site, says homeowners who think this isn’t a good time to sell may be mistaken. “The general sentiment from consumer surveys is that now is not a good time to sell a home because of COVID, economic uncertainty, and social unrest, but the data is saying the opposite,” Hale said. “Home prices are back to their pre-COVID pace and we’re seeing listings spend slightly less time on the market than last week.” Despite conditions, though, the number of active listings is now 25 percent below one year ago at the same time. (source)
