The number of homes that went under contract the week ending July 18, 2020 surpassed those of the previous week, with pending sales increasing by 10.9 percent week over week, according to Zillow’s Weekly Market Report. However, pending sales are still 2.4 percent down from the previous month.
Homes sold during the week ending July 18 typically went under contract after 15 days, the same length of time the week before and eight days faster than one year earlier.
Properties are leaving the market quickly, but new listings remain scarce. New for-sale listings declined 0.2 percent from the week prior, making new listings down 14.6 percent year over year. Total inventory is also down 0.9 percent on a weekly basis and 3.3 percent on a monthly basis. As a result, there are 25.5 percent fewer homes on the market now than the same time last year.
The strong demand for housing has supported a rise in sale and list prices over the past few weeks. During the first week of June, the median sale price was up 1 percent year over year to $262,600. During the week ending July 18, median list price was up 5.3 percent on an annual basis to $341,640. On the flip side, only 4.2 percent of listings cut their prices during this week, 1.3 percentage points lower than those that cut prices the same time in 2019.