Boost in housing inventory predicted to hit the market by June

While the pandemic caused many would-be home sellers to stay put, about 45% of respondents in that group say they plan to list their property by the end of June, according to a survey by Clever Real Estate.

In the March survey, 43% of homeowners said the pandemic delayed plans to sell their house. A quarter plan to sell in 2021 while 22% decided not to sell at all. The remaining 10% sold their home in the past year, during the coronavirus outbreak.

Among those still looking to sell, 45% plan to list their property by the end of June. A 13% share said they would list between July and August, another 13% targeted September and October, and 6% plan to list in November and December. The leftover 23% will wait for 2022 or longer.

With consumers growing more comfortable as a larger share of the population gets vaccinated, supply is already seeing gains. New listings rose 6.3% annually as of March 27, Clever’s data scientist Francesca Ortegren told NMN. However, year-ago levels were quite low due to the initial impact of pandemic.

“Don’t expect the market to look like it did in 2019. I doubt we’ll see a shift into a buyer’s market this year,” Ortegren said. “[But] there are a lot of homebuyers who lost out on purchases or waited to buy that’ll be searching for homes this summer as well.”

Other indicators point to a higher housing supply around the corner. The residential construction sector added over 10,000 jobs in March from February while spending jumped 21.1% year-over-year in February, according to Zillow’s Market Pulse report from April 2.

Growing job numbers and declining unemployment could create an influx of potential homebuyers. With more buyers coming to market, there still may not be enough units available to meet the fierce demand. That dearth of supply opens up another issue: the trouble some sellers will have finding their next home.

“It's a feedback loop in which low inventory begets low inventory, and I don't know how to break it in the short term,” said Holden Lewis, home and mortgage expert at NerdWallet. “After 2008, tax credits were used to give people an incentive to buy homes, but buyers don't need incentives today; sellers do.”