Nearly 1 in 4 Sellers Cut Prices as Inventory Grows: Zillow

(Illustration courtesy of Zillow)

Home listings are piling up as buyers step back from the peak of home shopping season faster than normal, according to Zillow, Seattle.

“A growing segment of homes that aren’t competitively priced or well marketed are lingering on the market,” Zillow Chief Economist Skylar Olsen said. “Sellers are increasingly cutting prices to entice buyers struggling with affordability.”

Olsen noted the housing market has been defined by fast sales and few options for several years. “Now, it’s starting to look more like it did before the pandemic in terms of competition, if not costs,” she said. “As the wait for mortgage rate relief drags on, slower price growth and even dips in some areas will help buyers catch up on saving for a down payment.”

The total number of homes on the market has risen throughout the year, ticking up 4% from May to June to stand nearly 23% above last year’s low level, the report said. Inventory levels are still nearly 33% below pre-pandemic averages, but that’s the smallest deficit since the fall of 2020, when the pool of available homes was quickly dropping.

Inventory is higher than last year in all of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas except two–New York and Cleveland–and rose month over month in all but five, Zillow said. “Attractive listings are selling relatively quickly. But buyers still in the market are enjoying a few more days to weigh their choices than they had last summer,” the report said. “Homes sold in June were typically on the market for 15 days before the seller accepted an offer. That’s five days shorter than pre-pandemic norms, the smallest difference since June 2020.”