DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/1526767
73 September 2024 J O U R N A L consecutive month of annual growth, surpass- ing the 22.4% pace from the previous month. The South and West Are Closest to Bridging the Inventory Gap All four regions witnessed an increase in active inventory in July compared to the prior year. Listings increased by 47.6% in the South, compared to inventory growth of 35.4% in the West, 22.7% in the Midwest, and 14.7% in the Northeast. The inventory gap in the South was the smallest, down 14.0% from pre-pandemic levels compared to the normal June from 2017 to 2019 before the COVID-19 Pandemic. In the West, the difference was 19.4%. While in the Midwest and Northeast, it was significantly greater, at 46.8% and 55.5%, respectively. When compared to the previous year, the number of available residences rose in each of the top 50 metro areas. The metro areas with the highest inventory growth were San Diego, California (+77.7%), Orlando, Florida (+78.7%), and Tampa, Florida (+94.9%). Even though the inventory increase was larger this year than it was the year before, most metro areas still had less inventory than they did in the years before the epidemic. Ten of the 50 biggest metro regions had larger in- ventory levels in July than usual, ranging from 2017 to 2019. From eight metros last month, this is an increase. The South and West were home to most of the top metro areas where inventory exceeded pre-pandemic levels: Austin, Texas (+39.2%), San Antonio (+25.8%), and Memphis, Tennessee (+25.3%). In comparison to July 2023, the West saw the most rise in newly listed house inven- tory—7.3%—while the Northeast, Midwest, and South saw 3.0%, 0.9%, and -0.5% growth in new inventory, respectively. In the South, where newly listed properties were 17.2% below pre-pandemic levels, the difference between newly listed homes and pre-pan- demic 2017 to 2019 levels was likewise the smallest. The West had a decrease of 31.2%, the Midwest saw a decrease of 24.9%, and the Northeast saw a decrease of 30.6%. July showed a decrease from 45 last month to 33 of the 50 major metros having more new listings than the prior year. However, none of the major metro areas had a higher number of newly listed properties in July than they did in June 2017 to 2019. The metros that saw the largest growth in newly listed homes compared with last year included Seattle (+37.3%), San Jose (+30.8%), and Columbus (+17.4%).