December 16, 2011 (Chris Moore)

The inventory of available homes for sale in the United States continued to dwindle in November, falling for the sixth consecutive month, while home prices have remained virtually unchanged during that same time period according to the latest data housing of 146 metro areas released by Realtor.com

Total listings of existing homes declined 4.84 percent from October with a total of 2,014,352 single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and co-ops listed for sale in November compared to 2,116,794 in October. The number of homes listed for sale in November was 21.30 percent lower than a year ago.

The median list price for an existing home in November was $189,900, unchanged from October. The median list price has remained virtually unchanged since June and is 4.05 percent higher than in November 2010.

The metropolitan area with the largest year-over-year decline in the median list price was Detroit where the median list price was 12.47 percent lower than in November of 2010, followed by Chicago, which had held that distinction for the previous four months, with a 12.28 percent year-over-year decline.

Rounding out the top five was Atlanta, posting a 7.65 percent decline, Las Vegas with a 7.08 percent decline and Orange County in California with a 6.42 percent decline in annual median list price.

Florida continued to dominate the list of metropolitan areas with the largest year-over-year increase in the median list price with Miami at the top posting a 29.50 percent gain followed by Naples, which posted a gain of 23.00 percent.

Fort Myers-Cape Coral, which had posted the largest gains in the median list price for the previous five months, was third highest at 21.63 percent. Punta Gorda with a 17.34 percent annual median list price increase and Sarasota-Bradenton with a 16.56 percent increase rounded out the top five.

The average number of days that an existing home spent on the market climbed to 114 in November compared to 110 days in October and 118 days in November of last year. Ninety-two out of the 146 metropolitan areas required 100 days or more to sell a home, up from 84 in October.

Residents selling their homes in the southern region of South Carolina continued to wait the longest to sell their homes, averaging 188 days on the market, up from 185 days the previous month. Residents in Oakland had the shortest wait for the second consecutive month, averaging 49 days on the market, unchanged from the previous month.

Tags: housing inventory, listed homes, home prices, median sales price, average list price

Source:
Realtor.com