Homes are taking longer to sell in the current cooling housing market, compared to the pandemic-induced real estate frenzy. According to new data from Realtor.com, the typical home spent 67 days on the market in February, which is 23 days longer than in February 2022. However, this is still less than the average time homes spent on the market in the years leading up to the pandemic, which was 87 days between 2017 and 2019.
The data also shows that the amount of time a home spends on the market varies greatly by location. For instance, in Columbus, Ohio, the typical home spent a median of 42 days on the market last month, compared to just 25 days a year ago, which is an increase of 17 days. The cities where the typical home spent the most time on the market in February compared to a year earlier were Austin, Texas (+52 days), Raleigh, North Carolina (+51 days), Denver, Colorado (+42 days), and Las Vegas, Nevada (+42 days). Interestingly, these cities were some of the hottest housing markets during the height of the pandemic.
Realtor.com's chief economist, Danielle Hale, says that even though fewer homeowners are putting their homes on the market this winter, there are significantly more homes for sale now than there were a year ago. She attributes this to persistently high home prices and high mortgage rates, which are dampening demand from buyers. Hale suggests that sellers begin adjusting to this new market dynamic, as with a smaller pool of buyers and more competition from other homes on the market, they will likely need to adjust their price expectations in the market this spring.
