One of the reasons people are having a hard time buying a home these days may be that there aren't that many properties for sale. According to Redfin analysis, 2.5% of U.S. homes gained new owners in the first eight months of this year. According to CNN, this is the lowest turnover rate in at least 30 years. “What this data tells us is that the housing market is truly frozen in 2024,” said Redfin's Chen Zhao. “We said the same thing in 2023, and I think there was some hope that things wouldn't get any worse, but 2024 has been a disappointing year for the housing market.”
If the real estate market was healthier, 30 to 40 homes out of every 1,000 would change hands, Zhou said. Only about 25 out of 1,000 pieces will be sold from January to August. The sales data means 37% fewer homes were moved in the eight months of 2024 than during the same period in 2021, when sales increased as the pandemic eased. This year's speed is 31% slower than 2019. In 2024, there were 32 homes for sale per 1,000 homes. This is the weakest market in a dataset of real estate agents dating back to 2012.
Los Angeles has the lowest turnover rate, at 15 homes per 1,000 people, down by almost a third from 2019. Phoenix ranks first with 38 homes per 1,000 people. “In places like Los Angeles, wages aren't keeping up with housing prices,” local real estate agent Jeremiah Vankans told CNN. “There's not a lot of new construction inventory on the market, and even when it does, it's not at entry-level prices.” Mortgage rates are another reason. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, most active mortgage interest rates are less than 4%. “There was little incentive for people to sell their homes,” Zhao said (see more articles on the housing market).
