May Housing Supply Outlook

The May Housing Supply Outlook is out. As usual, here's a quick list of what to watch for, in the interest of making your time with this detailed report as efficient and productive as possible:

• The entire housing market—in both supply and demand—is seeing a downward shift in activity towards the lower price ranges, likely a result of the increasing market share of foreclosures and short sales. Compared to this time last year, the supply of homes under $150,000 is up 87.2 percent and home sales in that price range are up 49.8 percent. There is far less happening in the middle and upper price brackets.

• A much smaller share of condominiums are foreclosures or short sales than the townhouse and single-family detached markets. It's not a coincidence then that the average sales price and price per square foot of condos is actually holding relatively steady and not seeing dramatic overall value declines.

• New construction inventory is still down significantly—21.7 percent behind this time last year, to be exact. The months supply of new construction inventory is only up 2.8 percent in the last year to 11.4 months, compared to a 24.0 percent increase for the previously owned market.