Homebuyers were left with few choices at the start of the year as Delaware County had just around 18 days’ worth of housing supply in January, writes Michaelle Bond for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Such inadequate supply combined with the rising demand has continued to fuel buyer competition and push prices in the area further up.
The monthly supply of inventory has been going down in Delaware County for years. In January 2013, the county had a 7.3-month supply of inventory. That number went down to 6.0 in January 2015 and to 1.7 in January 2020.
Last month, it had reached 0.6 months.
There were 528 new listings in January 2022, a decrease of 1.1 percent compared to January 2021 and 9.9 percent compared to January 2020.
The number of pending sales, 557 in January, was down by 3.5 percent from a year ago, but up by 7.1 percent compared to January 2020.
Home sales throughout Pennsylvania dropped 29% in January compared with December.
“It’s not because buyers said they don’t want to buy anymore. … It’s because sellers didn’t make homes available for those buyers to get their hands on,” said Christopher Beadling, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors.
Read more about the housing supply in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Altos Research looks at why housing inventory is so low in the nation right now.
