Nationwide showings activity was up more than 20% from a year earlier
With analysts already calling for a highly competitive spring homebuying market, the latest stats on showings suggest demand is intensifying.
Showings activity tracked by ShowingTime surged in January compared to a year earlier with the firm’s Showing Index report revealing a 20.2% increase.
The gain was the largest in the history of the report and was lead by the West where showing activity jumped 34.1% year-over-year, followed by The South (21.6%), the Northeast (20.6%), and the Midwest (15.7%).
"We continue to see substantial increases in buyer traffic,” said ShowingTime Chief Analytics Officer Daniil Cherkasskiy. “While only a portion of the markets showed spikes in November - December 2019, showing traffic increased across the board for almost all markets in January.”
Cherkasskiy added that the annual increase should be taken in the context of the extreme weather conditions seen in some parts of the US in January 2019, exaggerating the January 2020 increase.
“Even so, the number of appointments per listing have gone up to record levels based on activity we see in our systems, suggesting that the housing market will be quite competitive this spring,” he said.
