Inventory is increasing! According to the May national housing report from Realtor.com, there are two trends that indicate we are moving toward a more balanced market instead of the seller's market we have been in and both are inventory related.
1) The number of homes actively for sale was notably higher compared with last year, growing by 35.2 percent, a seventh straight month of growth.
2) The total number of unsold homes, including homes that are under contract, increased by 20.9 percent compared with last year.
Locally, the San Diego Association of Realtors' April 2024 report noted that market-wide, inventory levels were up 32.9 percent. The property type with the largest gain was the Condos - Townhomes segment, where they increased 65.2 percent. That amounts to 1.8 months supply for Single-Family homes and 1.9 months supply for Condos. (A truly balanced market is considered 5-6 months of inventory.)
Look at hard numbers to better understand this. Below are the inventory numbers for specific periods over the past few years. (The numbers shown are for a specific week of that month but it gives you a feel for what the inventory has been.)
Summer 2019 - averaged 7500+ properties on the market
August 2022 - 4974 properties on the market
December 2022 - 3286 properties on the market
May 2023 - 2319 properties on the market
July 2023 - 2557 properties on the market
November 2023 - 3201 properties on the market
As of the end of May we were at 3946 properties on the market. Not balanced but certainly giving buyers more to choose from and sellers an understanding that they need to be realistic in their pricing. Increased inventory doesn't mean prices will crash because we still are way below normal, it just means things may level out and pricing, and possibly concessions, will be key to sales.