In Depth Analysis: CalculatedRisk Newsletter on Real Estate (Ad Free) Read it here.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Existing Home Inventory declines slightly in August

by Calculated Risk on 8/31/2010 07:10:00 PM

Tom Lawler reports that at the end of August, listings on Realtor.com totaled 4,007,860, down 0.7% from 4,038,133 at the end of July. This is 2.5% above August 2009.

The NAR reported inventory at 3.98 million at the end of July, and at 3.924 million in August 2009. So they will probably report inventory at close to 4 million for August.

Since sales probably only increased slightly in August, the months-of-supply metric will be in double digits again in August and probably still over 12 months.

Note: there is a seasonal pattern for existing home inventory. Usually inventory peaks in July and declines slightly through October - and then declines sharply at the end of the year as sellers take their homes off the market for the holidays.