But buyers and sellers "remain in a deadlock," says Redfin
Homebuying demand continued to show signs of recovery for the third straight week, slowly pulling through from sharp declines in March, Redfin reported Thursday.
After plunging nearly 34% during the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in March, homebuying is now down by only 15% on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Bit by bit, prospective buyers and sellers are coming back to the housing market – driving a modest increase in new listings and pending sales. Roughly 53,000 new homes hit the market a week ago, compared to over 48,000 on the week prior, which marked the lowest level in new listings over the past two months.
As new listings increase, pending sales went up from almost 31,000 to more than 32,500 last week. Despite the gain in new listings, Redfin said the April inventory level of 700,000 homes for sale is the lowest it has recorded in the past five years.
Overall prices have also moderated. Last week, the median listing price edged up 1% year over year to $308,000.
"Buyers and sellers are in a deadlock," said Graham Rogers, a Redfin agent in South Carolina. "Buyers are asking 'is now the right time,' and making more conservative offers, but sellers are not willing to come down on price. In the end, buyers are paying up to hit the seller's bottom-line number."
