Home tour demand posts annual decrease
The continued lack of choice for potential homebuyers is dampening demand for home tours and restricting offers.
The Redfin Demand Index for April was down 1.4% to a 106 reading, edging closer to the historical average of 100 between January 2013 and December 2015.
"April was the first time in 27 months that we saw a year-over-year decline in the number of customers touring homes," said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. "We believe this was driven by the low levels of new listings in March. However, April's 6.6% increase in new listings is a positive turn for homebuyers and bodes well for May and June home sales."
Despite the new listings, inventory of available homes for sale was 7.7% below that of a year earlier.
Offers down more than 22%
Meanwhile there was a 1.8% decline in Redfin customers writing offers for home across the 15 metro areas covered by the firm.
Year-over-year the Demand Index declined 11.5% from April 2017 with the number of buyers requesting home tours down 3.7% and the number of buyers making offers slumping 22.1%.
