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Housing Inventory Just Hit a High Not Seen Since 2020—With More Lower-Priced Homes, Too
Home prices remain relatively steady
As the seasons change, so do home prices. They tend to start the year on the lower side and rise as the weather warms up.
So far, 2024 is shaping up to be no different, with the price of a median home rising about 1.5%, to $415,500 in February compared with $409,500 in January.
Annually, home price growth has slowed. The median list price ticked up by just 0.3% compared with last year.
Hale adds that, according to economic forecasts, “home prices will be relatively stable in 2024. We’ll still see the usual seasonal ramp-up, but I don’t expect to see much growth beyond that.”
Another bright spot on the affordability horizon? More homes for sale saw price reductions, with the percentage increasing to 14.6% this year compared with 13.2% last February.
“A rising share of price reductions suggests that today’s sellers are responding to market conditions and motivated to adjust to find buyers if they find they’ve priced too high initially,” says Hale.
And while home seller flexibility will vary greatly by market, Hale adds, “Home prices remain high, but the data suggest that buyers may have some room to negotiate when submitting an offer.”
Where housing inventory is up—and prices down
Home sellers came out in force this February in large Southern metros, which saw active home listings grow by a whopping 17% on average compared with last year.
Buyers looking for a bargain in warmer climates well below the median home price are in luck.
“In February, the South as a whole has been largely driving the increase in availability of homes priced between $200,000 and $350,000, a price category that saw the most year-over-year growth nationally,” says Speianu.
Metros that saw the largest increases in the number of homes for sale included Orlando, FL, up 38.5%; MiamiBlogs, up 37.4%; and Tampa, FL, up 36.3%.
Meanwhile, large Western and Northeastern metros saw a drop in housing inventory in February, by 1.0% and 4.2% on average, respectively.
Homes spent 61 days on the market in February, three days shorter than last year. Buyers who find a home as spring draws near might not want to hesitate in making an offer.
Margaret Heidenry is a writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Boston Magazine.
Even Dave and Jenny Marrs of ‘Fixer to Fabulous’ Still Make This Rookie Renovation Mistake—You, Too?
Play down the garage
“When you first drive up to the house, you see a lot of garage,” says Rick. “Just the garage. You don’t see much of the house. So we’re hoping to freshen up the color, or do something to add a little more depth and dimension so you see the rest of the house.”
Jenny knows just how to do that.
“If we paint dark on the brick, it makes it feel like it’s all consistent and more modern,” she says. “The plan out here is to modernize the space, so we will paint the trim, paint the brick, get new modern lighting, a new front door, update the landscaping, and that’ll do it.”
Sure enough, it does.
Sticky stone can fix an ugly fireplace
Make sure things fit through the front door
Dave and Jenny purchased a massive custom slider for the living room. But when they go to install it, they find it’s too big to fit in the front door no matter how they turn it. Talk about a rookie mistake!
Dave and his brother decide to power it through, and while the glass makes it inside intact, the door casing is worse for the wear—they’ve scratched and nicked it.
“I guess it’s a good thing we’re changing the front door,” Dave says with a laugh.
Brighten up the bunk beds
Bunk beds are a great way to allow a guest room to accommodate more kids, so why not make them fun?
Jenny wants to add a touch that takes advantage of the lake style, so she goes searching for an old boat that Dave can fashion into bunk beds. Dave cuts the boat in half, attaches each half to the wall, and fashions them with a sort of bedside table. What kid wouldn’t want to sleep in that?
“When Lisa and Rick’s friends come, they’re going to climb up in their boat bunks,” Jenny says. “That’s going to be fun!”
Dress up a tray ceiling
Ideally, Dave and Jenny would like to vault the tray ceiling in the living room, but when Dave crawls up into the attic, he finds that it can’t be done.
But there must be some way they can glam it up, right?
Jenny decides to make the ceiling more attractive by installing wood planks and a modern ceiling fan.
“You had this tray ceiling here before,” says Jenny. “So we just embraced it, rather than flattening it off, because you didn’t want to go lower.”
When all is said and done, this boring lake house is completely transformed.
“We just left you guys an open book, and you nailed it,” says Rick. “You’ve made this into a place where we want to spend our future.”
“Lisa and Rick bought this home because of the location on the lake,” says Jenny. “But it didn’t feel like the lake, like their house. Now it feels very much like them. It feels like it caters to what they wanted. They can see themselves here for a long time, and that’s what’s important to us.”
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