There were more San Diego homes for sale in recent weeks.

There were 970 new homes listed for sale in San Diego County from May 24 to June 20. That’s almost double the 450 to 500 new listings per month San Diego County was adding at the start of the year.

Why the uptick in inventory? Real estate agents say sellers feel more comfortable moving out of homes and putting them on the market now that the population is more fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Also, significant price increases are motivating some sellers to finally pull the trigger.

Still, it might be hard for a frustrated home shopper to notice a huge difference yet. 71% of homes in San Diego County are off the market in two weeks or less.

Pending sales in San Diego County have been exceeding past years’ levels for several months, which shows a lot of activity even though a casual industry watcher may not see big movements in inventory.

The extra supply that has been coming on the market in San Diego has actually allowed buyers to make more offers.

If you look at the overall number of homes for sale in San Diego County, it is still at historic lows. There were 3,990 homes for sale from May 24 to June 20. That is below even 2020 with stay-at-home orders in place when there were around 6,260 at the same time. The same goes for 2019 with 8,561 homes listed; 2018 with 8,064 and 7,185 in 2017.

So, while there have been more new listings in recent weeks, they have been selling so fast that inventory totals don’t have the chance to grow.

For instance, around this time last year, about half of homes were selling in two weeks or less - compared with more than 70% now. That meant a home that went on the market last year in May might still be there in June or July — whereas now there is no buildup in supply because new listings are snatched up so rapidly.

Most housing analysts predict that an increase in homes for sale will slow price increases because there will be less need for bidding wars among buyers. The median home price in San Diego County hit a record high of $725,000 in May, said DQNews, up 23 percent in a year.

Most housing analysts also predict home inventory across the nation will continue to increase as the economy increasingly opens up from Covid-19 restrictions.

Source: SDuniontribune by Phillip Molnar