Inventory, prices post gains as spring buying season gets underway

Listing inventory and median list prices posted gains from February to March, with inventory rising 2.4 percent and prices 0.5 percent, according to the latest numbers from realtor.com.

As the spring buying season got underway, the median age of inventory on realtor.com in March shrank to 78 days, down 20.4 percent from February and 12.3 percent from a year ago.

The number of single-family homes, condos, townhomes and co-ops listed for sale on realtor.com was down 15.2 percent in March from a year ago, to 1.53 million. Median list prices on the site were up 0.5 percent from a year ago, to $190,000 — about where they stood in August last year.

Source: realtor.com

Of the 146 metro areas realtor.com tracks, only nine saw annual increases in for-sale inventory during March. California metros accounted for nine of the 10 markets seeing the largest year-over-year declines in inventory (Seattle was the lone market outside of California to make the top 10). The top five markets for declining inventory were Stockton-Lodi, Sacramento, Orange County, Oakland and San Jose.