The number of houses and condominiums for sale in Greater Boston is slowly ticking up, although overall inventory is still far from where it was this time last year, according to new data from Zillow.
Total inventory rose 2.3 percent week-over-week for the seven days ending June 27, the real estate listings site reported late last week, but total inventory in Greater Boston is still 25.2 percent off the same week in 2019. New for-sale listings are 3.5 percent off from the prior week and 16.5 percent up from one month ago.
The increase marks the latest in many consecutive weeks of increased inventory, with total homes for sale up 2.6 percent week-over-week for the seven days ending June 20. New for-sale listings for that week were up 8.2 percent over the prior week and up 12.7 percent from one month before. Overall, Zillow statistics show, the region’s inventory hit a low of 29.8 percent down year-over-year for the week ending May 23.
Statewide as of May 31, there were only 2 months’ supply of single-family homes and 2.3 month’s supply of condominiums on the market, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, 41.2 percent and 23.3 percent off May 2019, respectively. Total single-family inventory was down 43.7 percent and total condo inventory was down 29.6 percent, MAR reported.
Market-watchers say the inventory crunch is helping push the state’s median home sale price higher as the market grapples with higher-than-normal buyer demand released after months of economic shutdown, and sellers warry of welcoming strangers into their homes, of moving to new housing during the pandemic and of being able to find a new home if they were to sell their own. The median single-family sale price increased 3.2 percent on a year-over-year basis last month to $423,000, up from $410,000 in May 2019, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman – an all-time high for the month of May. The median sale price edged up 0.3 percent on a year-over-year basis to $402,500.
