There are more fish in the sea, and more homes for sale in these markets
Finding a home to purchase has been one of the biggest challenges to potential homebuyers. As the number of homes listed for sale, also known as housing inventory, has gone down, competition for the homes that do go on the market has heated up.
A homeowner who put in a bid and lost on their home used to be able to take heart in the old axiom in matters of romantic disappointment—there are always more fish in the sea. But that wasn’t the case for homebuyers over the last few years as inventory dropped to historic lows.
The good news is, however, that the tides seem to be slowly turning on this trend, and as we begin 2024, let’s take a look at the markets where there are more homes for sale than there were a year ago.
And if you’re worried about buying a home in a competitive market, don’t worry. At Proper Rate, we want to give you every possible advantage to land your dream home. Apply using PowerBid Approval and show sellers and agents that you’re serious about getting the new home or condo you deserve.
Housing inventory heading into 2024
We looked at data from the Realtor.com® Economic Research team, at the top 250 housing markets across the country, and picked out the ones that showed the greatest increase in number of homes for sale, as measured by active listings, from December of 2022 to December of 2023.
Many of the metro areas which were seeing more homes come on the market are in the Sun Belt, particularly Florida, North Carolina and Texas. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), sees increased activity for this part of the country in terms of home listings and sales: "Metro markets in southern states will likely outperform others due to faster job increases, while markets in the Midwest will experience gains from being in the most affordable region."
More listings in Florida
The top three metro areas are all in Florida, where warm weather and sandy beaches attract many homebuyers. Perhaps in 2024 they will continue to see more homes on the market, as the top three have not just seen year-over-year increases in listings, but the all three saw more homes go up for sale in December than had been in November.
- Punta Gorda, FL
Active listings: 2,987
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 151.2%
Median Listing Price: $427,500
Price change, 2022-2023: 0.34%
- Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL
Active listings: 8,449
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 99.2%
Median Listing Price: $475,415
Price change, 2022-2023: 2.24%
- North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL
Active listings: 6,682
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 71.9%
Median Listing Price: $520,000
Price change, 2022-2023: -0.95%
Inventory up in Texas
Amarillo is the largest city in the Texas panhandle, and a major hub of the meat packing industry for the country. It’s also the first of many Texas metro areas that is seeing an increase in home listings. These metros are located all over the state, from Longview in the east, Corpus Christi in the south and Brownsville right on the border with Mexico.
- Amarillo, TX
Active listings: 891
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 62.0%
Median Listing Price: $320,000
Price change, 2022-2023: 1.08%
- Appleton, WI
Active listings: 316
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 56.4%
Median Listing Price: 399,900
Price change, 2022-2023: 0.0%
Home prices and rising inventory
What’s notable about this list is that the amount of areas that are seeing home prices go up along with inventory is almost split down the middle. Eleven of the markets are seeing home prices go up, with our next entrant seeing a 5.41% increase in price from last year to now. That’s the second biggest jump on the list.
In general, we would expect to see home prices grow more slowly or even go down as the number of homes for sale goes up. That’s supply and demand at work—as the supply of homes goes up, demand goes down and prices come down accordingly. However, home prices have a tendency to change slowly over time, which would explain why some prices are still heading up while others aren’t.
- Naples-Marco Island, FL
Active listings: 4,324
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 56.4%
Median Listing Price: $855,000
Price change, 2022-2023: 5.41%
- Longview, TX
Active listings: 797
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 47.6%
Median Listing Price: $299,000
Price change, 2022-2023: -0.28%
- Burlington, NC
Active listings: 431
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 47.1%
Median Listing Price: $344,990
Price change, 2022-2023: -2.4%
- Eugene-Springfield, OR
Active listings: 644
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 46.7%
Median Listing Price: $522,450
Price change, 2022-2023: 4.5%
Dealing with the lock-in effect
Many of today’s homeowners bought or refinanced their homes when rates were lower, mainly the time period from mid-2020 to early 2022. But those homeowners with low interest rates have been reluctant to put their homes up for sale and lose those low rate mortgages. This has been called the rate lock-in effect. As the data in this article suggest, however, that affect may be loosening up as rate have been coming down through the end of 2023 and more and more people are being forced to make changes for reason other than their mortgage rate, like job changes, families getting bigger or other reasons.
- Bowling Green, KY
Active listings: 602
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 44.0%
Median Listing Price: $305,000
Price change, 2022-2023: -5.4%
- Brownsville-Harlingen, TX
Active listings: 1,232
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 42.9%
Median Listing Price: $305,000
Price change, 2022-2023: -4.6%
- Fayetteville, NC
Active listings: 960
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 42.2%
Median Listing Price: $309,706
Price change, 2022-2023: -4.1%
- Jacksonville, NC
Active listings: 836
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 38.9%
Median Listing Price: $325,000
Price change, 2022-2023: -1.5%
- Lynchburg, VA
Active listings: 538
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 35.8%
Median Listing Price: $339,900
Price change, 2022-2023: 3.3%
- Gulfport-Biloxi, MS
Active listings: 1,501
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 35.7%
Median Listing Price: $294,950
Price change, 2022-2023: 5.4%
- Elkhart-Goshen, IN
Active listings: 258
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 35.1%
Median Listing Price: $260,000
Price change, 2022-2023: 0.8%
- Johnson City, TN
Active listings: 390
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 34.9%
Median Listing Price: $369,650
Price change, 2022-2023: -2.7%
- Tyler, TX
Active listings: 942
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 34.4%
Median Listing Price: $375,000
Price change, 2022-2023: -7.4%
- Corpus Christi, TX
Active listings: 2,231
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 34.1%
Median Listing Price: $359,000
Price change, 2022-2023: 10.5%
- Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL
Active listings: 2,166
Active listing growth, 2022-2023: 33.2%
Median Listing Price: $529,900
Price change, 2022-2023: 8.2%
What to do if more homes are available
If more homes are for sale, and mortgage rates continue to ease down after the highs we saw in 2023, it’s possible that more buyers will start looking as well. That’s why it’s so important to be prepared by using Proper Rate's Same Day Mortgage. It can give your offer the same kind of punch as an all-cash offer. For eligible loans, you can even get a loan approval status in as little as one day, allowing you to close the deal with unrivalled speed.
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