Cooling housing market brings relief to buyers

The number of homes for sale during the week ending July 9 was 28 percent higher than the number of homes on the market during that same week one year ago, according to a report from Realtor.com. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Home buyers may be able to experience relief — if they can qualify for a mortgage, that is. More sellers are dropping their prices and more homes are available for sale, according to two new housing reports.

Still, buyers are grappling with inflation at a 40-year high that impacts their budget, and mortgage payments that are 50 percent higher than if they had bought a house a year ago.

Onto the good news: The number of homes for sale during the week ending July 9 was 28 percent higher than the number of homes on the market during that same week one year ago, according to a report from Realtor.com.

More homes have been listed for sale compared to a year ago in 13 of the past 16 weeks, a trend which is expected to continue. Homeowners who delayed moving because of coronavirus concerns are more likely to sell now. In addition, many homeowners have seen their home values rise by double digit percentage increases over the past year and want to take advantage of that new equity.

Homes continue to sell quickly, according to Realtor.com, but in many areas they are staying on the market longer than during this same period last year.

While sellers want to get the maximum price possible for their homes, they are also beginning to recognize the shift in the housing market because of higher mortgage rates, increased home values and the pressure of inflation. More than three-fourths of the markets analyzed by Redfin real estate brokerage saw more than 25 percent of sellers drop their prices in June, and in every market more than 10 percent of sellers lowered their price from their original offer.

The market that saw the biggest number of sellers drop their prices in June was Boise, where 61.5 percent of sellers reduced their listing price, according to Redfin real estate brokerage.

The other nine markets out of the top 10 with the highest percentage of price drops in June include Denver (51.1 percent), Salt Lake City (51.6 percent), Tacoma (49.5 percent), Grand Rapids (49.3 percent), Sacramento (48.7 percent), Seattle (46.3 percent), Portland, Ore. (45.7 percent), Tampa (44.5 percent) and Indianapolis (44.1 percent).

In the D.C. region, 36.2 percent of sellers dropped their prices.

For the Redfin report, click here.

For the Realtor.com report, click here.