Several metrics indicate that demand is cooling in a moderately strong market. With limited supply in the market, homes typically sold within 17 days (22 days one year ago). The REALTORS® Buyer Traffic Index decreased further from 71 in June to 64 in July (moderately strong conditions) while the REALTORS® Seller Traffic Index remains below 50 which is “weak” traffic compared to the level one year ago. On average, a home sold had more than 4 offers, for which remains unchanged from last month’s survey. REALTORS® expect home prices in the next three months to increase nearly 2% from one year ago compared to 4% outlook in last month’s survey. Respondents expect sales in the next three months to decrease 1% from last year’s sales level compared to the 1% outlook in last month’s survey.
emphasis added
Click on graph for larger image.
This map, from the July NAR report, shows buyer traffic is mostly “moderately strong” just about everywhere.
This is less demand than last month, and significantly less than a few months ago.
As the NAR noted: “demand is cooling in a moderately strong market”.
The second map is from the April report.
In April, buyer traffic was very strong just about everywhere.
There has also been a shift in seller traffic, with more traffic in many states (compare map from April on page 3 to the map from July also on page 3).