New Listing Report -- Some Good News for Buyers?

We've just updated our report of new listings which we do every two weeks.  It shows the market's usual seasonal variations are consistent this year vs. a year ago but the total number of new listings is down compared to the same two week period last year.

In the two week period ending 7/20/15 there were 150 single family homes newly listed for sale compared with 137 last year.  However, there were only 179 condos listed compared to 246 last year -- so, 28% fewer condos but almost 10% more single family homes.

The report also shows that 11% of those new single family homes listing went into contract -- well below the typical percent during the last few months which has hovered in the high teens and low twenties percent.  For condos, the percentage of new listings that went into contract within two weeks was 9.5%, the lowest since October of last year.  Typically, this percentage has been in the low to mid twenties.

Overall, this may be good news for buyers -- although overall inventory continues to trend downward, competition may be easing just a bit.