Realtor.com Releases Weekly Index Showing the Current Market Numbers

Many companies are continuing to gather research to help map out how the rest of the year will look based on the most recent months. The Global pandemic hit the real estate industry hard, but now, companies are bouncing back and seeing spikes in site traffic, leads, and sales. 

One such company is realtor.com® which released its Housing Market Recovery Index. This proprietary index reveals the weighted average of search traffic, median list prices, new listings, and median time on market while comparing those numbers to the numbers gathered in January 2020- the baseline for pre-COVID market growth (100). 

For the first week of June, the index was at 88.8 (out of 100, the baseline) across the States, 11.2 points below the January baseline, and up 1.0 point over the week prior. 

Javier Vivas, Director of Economic Research for realtor.com®, said:

"By combining online search activity along with price and supply dynamics, the index functions as a robust leading indicator of housing activity, and a symptom gauge as we move toward healthier market conditions.”

Furthermore, the 11 markets that held the largest number of protests during the first week of June, the index revealed that the recovery trend was not impacted in those markets. 

In fact, these markets saw their recovery index increase 0.7 points over the prior week:

• Atlanta (+1.5 points)
• Chicago (+4.7 points)
• Cleveland (+3.3 points)
• Los Angeles (+0.2 points)
• Minneapolis (+0.3 points)
• New York (+4.9 points)

Markets that saw slight decrease in their weekly recovery index:

• Dallas (-2.0 points)
• Louisville, Ky (-2.1 points)
• Raleigh (-0.7 points)
• St. Louis (-0.9 points)
• Washington, D.C. (-1.1 points)

Danielle Hale, Chief Economist for realtor.com®, said:

"The general sentiment from consumer surveys is that now is not a good time to sell a home because of COVID, economic uncertainty, and social unrest, but the data is saying the opposite.

"Home prices are back to their pre-COVID pace and we're seeing listings spend slightly less time on the market than last week. But the housing market still needs more sellers in order to meet the surge in demand. Looking forward, if we don't get the inventory we need, we'll see prices rise even more and homes sell faster later this summer."

Other companies that have run similar research projects have seen spikes in recovery, as well. Rival US portal, Zillow, ran a weekly research report that showed the originally predicted loss has gone from 3.3% to 0.3%. Across the pond, British portal, Zoopla saw a huge spike in sales. Experts think the worst is behind us but companies are still cautious of the future as a vaccine has yet to be developed for the COVID-19 virus.