National Data

Has the Housing Market Already Found the Bottom?

By Mike Simonsen on January 30, 2023

Topics

Stay up to date

Stay up to date

Back to main Blog
Mike Simonsen

Mike Simonsen is the founder and president of real estate analytics firm Altos Research, which has provided national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country for more than 15 years. An expert trendspotter, Mike uses Altos data to identify market shifts months before they hit the headlines.

Available inventory of homes for sale continues to fall at the end of January. This is a combination of very few new listings and a bit of a surprising uptick in demand from buyers. Low supply is helping to buoy prices, which were falling in the 4th quarter.

So the question is: have we already seen the bottom for the housing market, or is this a temporary blip before an inevitable recession hits, or interest rates climb again? Everyone has their view of course, but the early data is pointing towards a stronger-than-expected spring market.

Every week Altos Research tracks every home for sale in the country. We analyze all the pricing, supply and demand, and all the changes in that data and we make it available to you before you see it in the traditional channels. If you aren’t using Altos market reports with your clients, your buyers and sellers, now might be the time to step up. Go to altosresearch.com and book a free consult with our team. Because everyone is worried about what’s happening right now. They need you to help them see clearly. The data we cover here in these national videos is available for every zip code in the US. Join us to dive in.

I’m Mike Simonsen, I’m the founder of Altos Research. Here’s what we know as we wrap up the first month of 2023.

 

 

Inventory


Available inventory of single family homes declined again this week to 466,000. That’s a little bit of a surprise though not entirely unheard of for late January. In pre-pandemic years it was normal for inventory in January to bounce up and down each week in January to settle at the absolute low point for the year during the first week of February before turning higher for the spring buying season. So, that’d be next week’s numbers. Since I’ve been anticipating this year's return to more normal pre-pandemic patterns we would expect the inventory low to hit next week then climb reliably starting in February.  Except that this year inventory hasn’t been bouncing, it’s basically just been falling each week.  We had one little increase a couple weeks ago.  We now have fewer homes on the market than at any time since the end of June last year! In that sense, the inventory curve for the spring of 2023 is starting to look more like the markets of the last two years: very few sellers, and plenty of buyers to gobble up what little is available. 

Inventory is 71% higher than it was at the peak of the frenzy last year. More homes, less buyer competition. And last year inventory kept falling until March 5. But Inventory is still 37% lower than it was in January 2020 just before the pandemic. So in summary: inventory is low, it’s not climbing yet for the spring. At least one more week of decline. But if this year starts to act like the pandemic years, then inventory could keep falling through all of February. That would be a surprise, but that’s where we are. 

Pending Sales


We can see demand improving as Pendings are up 6% week over week. Pendings are those homes in contract but not yet with a closed sale. There are 30% fewer contracts pending than last year, but that gap is closing as demand picks up from the ice cold 4th quarter. A few weeks ago we had 35% fewer pendings than a year prior - now only 30% fewer.  This is evidence that people are buying homes this spring. They’re not just kicking the tires. New pendings are up 16% week over week. It’s January, contracts start to climb. We have only 21% fewer homes going into contract this week. That’s 35% fewer pendings a few weeks ago, 30% fewer now but only 21% fewer new contracts. So that the sales gap between this year and last year is narrowing. Last year the sales rate was so elevated because everyone was rushing to take advantage of the last of the 3% mortgage rates.

Home Prices


In response to surprising home buyer interest and tight supply of available inventory, home prices climbed by 1.2% this week to just under $415,000. It’s not a ton of price strength. It’s not skyrocketing. Again, it’s not like last year. But home prices aren’t falling like we were anticipating as recently as December. 

When we talk about home prices holding up, it’s probably best to think about it as “sustaining” rather than home prices rising or falling. The median price of the newly listed homes this week is unchanged from last week at $379,900 and that’s only a couple percent above last year at this time. That’s the light red line on this chart.  The median price of those 264,000 homes in contract is just about exactly the same as it was last year. Like a 0% change.  So while we see price stability, the year over year comparison is compressing so the annual percentage change in home prices is flat to down for 2023.

 

Price Reductions

 

We see the demand in the price reductions data too. Because there are buyers out there, and because supply is so limited, the number of homes with price cuts keeps falling. Down to 33.9% of the active market has taken a price cut recently.  In this chart each line is a year. You can see 2023 starting at the left end of the chart on a pretty steep down curve. The trajectory looks more like the pandemic than pre-pandemic.  In recent years 2019 had the most price reductions because 2018 was a year of rising mortgage rates. 2019 is the blue line here. You can see we’re aiming down there now. I don’t think we’ll get under 30% with price cuts, but the conclusion you can draw here is that home buyers don’t suddenly have easy pickings. The best properties have multiple offers. Anecdotally, those offers I hear are coming in around asking price. These are not bidding wars over asking.  Again, it’s price stability rather than rising or falling from here. 

This is of course national data and the local markets are behaving very differently from each other right now. If you need to get your local data to your buyers and sellers right now, you should join us at Altos Research. Go to AltosResearch.com and book time with our team to learn how to interpret the market signals for the people who need it most right now. They need you to be the expert for them.

If you're interested in keeping up with the housing market, please sign up for our weekly real estate market updates. Every Monday, I break down all the latest numbers on home prices and inventory, and look at the trends we can see in the Altos data weeks or even months before you see them in the headlines.

You can also run a free Altos real estate market report for any zip code in the U.S. and receive an update on that area in your inbox every week.

And, if you want to learn how to read and interpret all the stats in the report, I encourage you to download our free eBook: "How to Use Market Data to Build Your Real Estate Business."

See you next week!

Get the latest articles directly in your inbox, stay up to date