The Lawhead Team came across a great article from USA TODAY about the recent inventory of homes for sale growing – a plus for home buyers!

More homes being listed for sale expand buyers‘ choices and may help to moderate price increases.

Julie Schmit, USA TODAY 9:04 a.m. EDT August 13, 2013

More homes are coming on the market, which is a good sign for buyers.

In July, the inventory of homes for sale nationwide was only down 5.2% from a year ago, Realtor.com says.

That’s an improvement from January, when for sale inventories were down 16% from the year before, according to Realtor.com.

More markets are also seeing inventories grow.

The for-sale inventory for buyers was up year-over-year in 25 markets in July, compared to just seven in April, Realtor.com says.

Three of those were Riverside, Calif., where inventories were up 26% year over year; Atlanta, up almost 18%; and Sacramento, Calif., up almost 17%.

All three cities have seen rapid price appreciation in the past year, in part because of super tight inventories.

“Larger inventories, especially in the hotter markets that experienced rapid price increases in the spring, are expanding buyers‘ choices and helping to moderate price increases,” says Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move, which operates Realtor.com.

The national median list price increased 5.3% in July year over year, Realtor.com says.

Home prices were up 11.9% in June year over year, according to the latest data from market researcher CoreLogic.

The supply of homes for sale in June changed only a little.

In June, the supply stood at 5.2 months, the National Association of Realtors says, up from 5 months in May.

That means at June’s sales pace, all homes would sell in that time frame if no new inventory was added.

Inventory conditions will continue to broadly favor sellers for months and contribute to above normal price growth, the National Association of Realtors has said.

Check out complete article here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/13/july-for-sale-home-inventory/2645411/

The Lawhead Team came across this article from Realtor® about the lack of inventory starting to ease up. Check it out:

Housing Inventory Shortages Start to Ease (Realtor® Mag)

Daily Real Estate News | Thursday, June 13, 2013

The percentage of homes for sale has risen 25 percent this year and housing inventories have started to outpace typical seasonal upticks, realtor.com® reports. 

Rising home prices likely are encouraging more home sellers to test out the market. The inventory crunch may be showing signs of easing with listings rising 5.8 percent in May. Still, the number of homes for sale is low by historical standards. Listings in May are still 10 percent below year-ago levels. 

The places where the number of homes for sale rose the most were Atlanta (rising 3.4 percent in May), Miami (2.8 percent), and Tuscon, Ariz. (1.8 percent). 

“Even with the increases, inventory in many markets remain tight, but any easing in the extreme shortages of the past year could ultimately cool the pace at which home prices have been rising,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

Meanwhile, median asking prices rose 4.8 percent nationally over year-ago levels, according to the report. Sacramento posted the highest increase in asking prices (rising 42.3 percent from April 2012) and Oakland (a 38 percent increase). 

Read the entire article here on Housing Inventory Shortages Start to Ease.