1st Look at Local Housing Markets in May
Tracking local data gives an early look at what happened the previous month and also reveals regional differences in both sales and inventory.
Closed sales in May were mostly for contracts signed in March and April, and mortgage rates, according to the Freddie Mac PMMS, averaged 6.65% in March and 6.73% in April. This was a decrease from the average rate for homes that closed in April.
NOTE: The tables for active listings, new listings and closed sales all include a comparison to May 2019 for each local market (some 2019 data is not available).
Closed Sales in May
In May, sales in these early reporting markets were down 5.5% YoY. Last month, in April, these same markets were down 0.3% year-over-year Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).
Important: There were fewer working days in May 2025 (21) as in May 2024 (22). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data will be higher than for the NSA data.
Note that most of these early reporting markets have shown stronger year-over-year sales than most other markets for the last several months.
Notes for all tables:
New additions to table in BOLD.
For the previous month (April), there were the same number of working days in April 2025 (22) as in April 2024 (22). So, the NAR reported year-over-year change in the headline SA data (-2.4%) was close to the change in the NSA data (-3.1%) although there are other seasonal factors.
Sales in all of these markets are down sharply compared to May 2019.
This graph shows existing home sales by month for 2024 and 2025, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis. Last year, the NAR reported sales in May 2024 were at 4.06 million SAAR.
This early data suggests that the May existing home sales report will likely be close to April sales (SA) and will likely show a year-over-year decrease for the fourth consecutive month.
Total sales last year (2024) were the lowest since 1995 (lower than any year during the housing bust), so it says something that sales are tracking even lower in 2025!
Active Inventory in May
Inventory was up 47.1% year-over-year. Last month inventory in these markets was up 54.2% YoY. Inventory is picking up more than usual in the Spring.
Comparing to April 2019, inventory is up sharply in Denver and down in Raliegh and San Diego. There are significant regional differences.
New Listings in May
For these areas, new listings were up 10.0% year-over-year.
Last month, new listings in these markets were up 13.4% year-over-year.
New listings are now up year-over-year, but down 14.4% compared to April 2019 activity.
This was just several early reporting markets. Many more local markets to come!