A new online tool from Realtor.com aims to help home buyers and sellers better understand the local housing market before making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.
The Market Clock analyzes local housing data and displays market conditions on a clock face, giving users a quick visual indication of whether a market currently favors buyers, sellers or neither.
Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com, said the tool comes as the U.S. housing market continues to shift away from the highly competitive conditions seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We all remember that very extreme, intense pandemic-era market where homes were selling very, very quickly," Jones explained over Zoom. "It felt like sellers could ask for pretty much any price and get multiple offers."
Today, she said, affordability challenges have reduced the number of active buyers while housing inventory has increased.
"Because affordability conditions have deteriorated, there are fewer buyers in the market, there's more inventory," Jones added. "As a result, the buyers who are in the market have a lot more options, and sellers need to be a little bit more flexible."
Rather than listing homes at aggressively high prices and later reducing them, Jones said many sellers are now entering the market with more realistic expectations. Her analysis matches with that given at the local level by the board president with the Pikes Peak Association of REALTORS.
"We're seeing that sellers are coming in at a more reasonable price point, a price point that can attract more buyers," she said.
The Realtor.com Market Clock is designed to simplify complex housing data into an easy-to-understand format.
"The Realtor.com Market Clock is a new tool that we have that enables you to understand what the market dynamics are in your local market and then gives you the ability to respond accordingly," Jones said.
The clock places markets on a familiar clock face. Twelve o'clock represents a seller's market, six o'clock indicates a buyer's market, while three and nine o'clock represent balanced markets. Realtor.com calculates each market's position using factors including inventory levels, sales pace and home price trends.
For parts of Colorado, the tool suggests conditions continue to favor buyers, although the market appears to be stabilizing. Jones said Colorado experienced significant home construction during and after the pandemic, helping inventory recover more quickly than many parts of the country.
Click here to use the Market Clock.
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