Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate brokerage, predicts U.S. home sales in August to increase slightly on a year-over-year basis, as the decline in interest in buying a home in June was smaller than the decline for the same month in 2011.
This is the first time Redfin has issued its "Real-Time Demand Pulse." It measures consumers signing offers and touring homes in 18 markets across the country.
The company said it saw homebuyer demand "slacken alarmingly since Memorial Day before picking back up at the end of June, and now a surprisingly strong week is shaping up to start July," said CEO Glenn Kelman.
"The demand among homebuyers touring homes almost always peaks in April, and signed offers usually peak in May, so what we look for in June is simply the size of the drop in early-stage demand, not whether there is a drop."
Over the previous four weeks, customers making an offer to buy a property fell 3% when compared with the four weeks before that. For 2011, the decline between the two four week periods was 8%.
However, for the past week, offers increased 5% over the week before. Redfin added those scheduling tours of homes for sale increased 2% over the prior week.
Kelman added that there has been fewer closings so far this year because of an "inventory crunch." Thus, talk of a bull market in real estate is premature.
"Prices have stabilized without creating big gains in sales volume. Tour activity has held up much better than offers, in part because more sellers seem to be coming forward to explore an improving market, so this bodes well for September," he said.
