Housing inventory is rising, with new homebuilders holding more unsold completed homes than at any point since 2009.
Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Claire Boston joins Wealth host Julie Hyman to discuss how this shift is playing out for both buyers and the market overall.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.
Homebuilders are currently sitting on the most completed unsold inventory since 2009, according to the Census Bureau and HUD. I spoke to the CEO of Rocket Companies, which announced its acquisition of America's largest mortgage servicer, Mr. Cooper for $9.4 billion. Here's what CEO Varun Krishna had to say about housing inventory levels.
We see some really positive green shoots. Uh, we see inventory up, we see more homes selling at or below list. Um, we don't see as many of those competitive bidding dynamics, um, that have existed in the past.
Here to talk about what this means for the market is Senior Housing Reporter Claire Boston. So, Claire, um, in theory, it seems like the housing inventory rising would be good news for buyers. They would have more choice. Is that how it sort of plays out?
You know, that is sort of what happens. So especially on the new home side right now, we have about 119,000 new homes that are completed, but they're waiting for buyers. And builders are very excited to get these off of their books and that can result in really good deals for those buyers. Uh, for example, builders are often willing to buy down a mortgage rate, give people closing cost credits, and, uh, you know, kind of other things like upgrades as well. Um, but the flip side of this is, uh, when builders have a lot of houses, uh, that they're sitting on, that means they're probably not rushing to build more houses. And so in the longer term, we still have this really big housing shortage in this country. And so, um, if builders are not able to sell what they have, they're not gonna rush out to kind of help dig us out of that hole any further.
That makes sense, especially at a time when their costs are going up because of tariffs, labor's not exactly going down. So, um, how does this kind of balance out between new home inventory and existing home inventory? What do those two pictures look like?
Yeah, so on the existing home side, we are seeing better inventory as well, but it is not nearly as intense as on the new home side. Um, new homes, they're at the highest levels since 2009. And existing homes in a lot of market inventory is up, but it's still not back to that kind of pre-COVID dynamic. Um, a lot of people I talk to, especially in the agent world, they have customers that maybe are considering a new or an existing home, and a lot of them end up going that new home route because of those discounts that are just better right now.
That's interesting. I I will say anecdotally in my town in New Jersey, I have been saying like the spring selling season seems a little more active than it has as of late. Um, are we seeing any regional trends that are telling us what's going on with inventory?
Definitely. We have a really bifurcated market right now. Um, competition is intense, uh, especially on the coast. So, New Jersey, uh, there is not a ton of inventory, although we are seeing that seasonal rise. Um, but then if you're going to go somewhere like Texas or Florida, they have some of the highest inventory levels ever. And so a lot of this is about where builders are able to build. It's a lot easier to build in the South. There's more space, the zoning is less restrictive. Um, but, uh, you know, people are kind of moving around. RTO is sort of changing the game. Maybe some people who tried out Florida living during the pandemic are now thinking they want to try something new. And so, uh, how good your deal is gonna be will depend a lot on where you live.
Yeah, makes sense. Claire, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
You too.