Real Estate "For Sale" Signs Mushroom

[Jun 7, 2007.]

If you're in the market for a house, you may be in luck this summer. A new report indicates that the number of houses for sale in many big cities rose in April. The flood of homes may be an indication that the nation's real estate market is still in trouble and may also be a sign of things to come in June and July.

ZipRealty, a California real estate broker, tracked homes in 18 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The broker found that there were more than 743,000 house and condo properties listed for sale in those areas. That's an increase of more than seven percent over March's totals and 33 percent over last year's figures.

The number of homes for sale skyrocketed in Seattle by more than 63 percent, while available homes in Miami jumped nearly 54 percent. Even Los Angeles recorded a significant increase in housing stock—an increase of nearly 40 percent over 2006 statistics.

The Las Vegas area—once considered to be a top-selling market—has more than double the number of homes on the market as it did in September of 2005, when the housing stock peaked out at 13, 238. The news is even more depressing in Los Angeles, which has seen a tripling in its inventory. Meanwhile, Phoenix, once a hotbed of real estate activity, is seeing its own share of troubles. More than 50,000 houses were up for sale in April there. In July of 2005, the available houses numbered only 11,656.

Because of the rapid increase in home inventory, builder confidence appears to have petered out. Generally speaking, when there is significant growth in the inventory of new and pre-owned homes, developers scale back their building plans. A problem with subprime loans has apparently added to the current housing crunch.

Julie Ann Amos
June 7th 2007

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