July Home Sales Jump 8.7% Despite Low Inventory, Ending Recent Skid

In a significant upward shift, July home sales rose 8.7% over July 2019, halting a streak of year-over-year sales declines triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. July’s market was blistering hot despite the lowest Months Supply of Inventory (1.7 months) in the 12-year history of the report.

July set a report record for most home sales in any month among the report’s 53 metro markets. Seven months into 2020, home sales are just 4.8% below 2019, compared to the end of May when the year-to-date total was 8.9% behind last year’s pace. Surprisingly, 2020 monthly sales have exceeded 2019 in four out of seven months thus far.

Finding a home to buy remains the biggest challenge for many. July inventory dropped 30.1% from July 2019, a report record, and was the ninth consecutive month of double-digit declines year over year. The only three months with lower inventory totals were two winters ago: December 2017 and January and February 2018.

July’s 1.7 Months of Inventory marked only the second month in report history with below 2 months supply. Even with year-over-year declines factored in, housing inventory is typically at its highest during the summer months.

July’s Median Sales Price of $285,000 is up 8.6% year-over-year. This is in line with pre pandemic rises in price after smaller year-over-year price increases of 4.7% and 1.9% in May and June, respectively. Days on Market averaged 44, an increase from 43 the previous July.

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