Arkansas Online

Homebuyers face near-record low homes for sale

By Alex Veiga; Jenni Sohn

Americans eager to buy a home this spring, beware: It’s slim pickings out there.

The number of U.S. homes on the market is at near-historic lows, which could dim would-be buyers’ prospects for finding a house or condo and fuel competition for the most affordable properties, economists say.

As of the end of February, just as the spring homebuying season got under way, some 980,000 homes were on the market nationally, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s an increase of 15.3% from February last year, when the number of homes for sale sank to an all-time low.

While homebuyers will have more properties to choose from now than last spring, the low supply and sharply higher mortgage rates set the stage for a higher overall price tag for homeownership.

“Buyers are facing a tough market, both in terms of inventory availability and in terms of how that matches up to affordability,” said Hannah Jones, an economic data analyst at Realtor.com.

A big reason there are more homes for sale than a year ago: Properties are taking, on average, nearly twice as long to sell. New listings, meanwhile, were down about 16% in February from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com data. Homebuyers have had to contend with a shrinking pool of homes for sale for much of the last decade, as many homeowners who’ve locked in ultra-low rates have less incentive to sell as borrowing costs climb.

Money & Markets Extra

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2023-03-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/284060556011869

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