The number of homes in Pueblo County that were for sale in January 2023 were 637, compared to just 405 home in January 2022. That’s an increase of 57.3% more homes for sale. New listing this month came in at 281, compared to 330 in January of last year representing a decrease of 14.8%.

Compared to December 2022 the median sales price of homes came in at $295,000 compared to a median price of $290,000 this month. A 1.7% increase in sales price over the previous month, but still 3.3% down from January a year ago.

Months of inventory rose from 1.4 months of inventory a year ago to 2.4 in January. This represents a 71.4 % increase in homes for sale since January 2022.

What’s happening with mortgage rates?

Mortgage rates moved up for the 2nd consecutive week. The average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage increased to 6.32% for the week ending February 16th, 2023. This time last year the rate stood at 3.92%.

Nationwide

Buyers might finally be getting some relief with prices falling that will allow them to offset the cost of a mortgage. Existing home sales fell for the tweltfht straight month in January, with year over years sales falling 37%, the biggest decline since 2010.

“The current sales activity is even lower than the lockdown month in April 2020, home sale are bottoming out” said Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist.

Total housing inventory at the end of January was 980,000 units, up 2.1% from December and 15.3% from one year ago (850,000). Unsold inventory sits at 2.9 month supply, unchanged from December but up from 1.6 months in January 2022.

“Inventory remains low, but buers are beginning to have better negotiating power. Homes sitting on the market for more than 60 days can be purchased around 10% less than the original list price” Yun said.

The recent rise in inventory has been driven by a pullback in new purchase contracts, and not a surge in new listings, according to Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant

“Current homeowners are still not finding a reason to list their home for sale, particularly when the rate on their mortgage is below 3%,” she says, adding that while there is much more inventory on the market than a year ago, the supply of homes is still half of what it was before the pandemic.