1 of every 5 homes for sale in April was new construction.

The number of newly built homes on the market fell just 10.5% year over year in April, the smallest decline in 2020 to date, while the supply of existing homes plunged 24%.

With the supply of existing homes sinking, new properties now make up a bigger piece of the pie. Last month, 1 in 5 homes on the market was a newly built home. That’s up from closer to 1 in 6 last year and represents the largest share since at least 2012.

The inventory of existing homes

Just the Facts: Four Key Housing Market Takeaways for This Week

• Home-buying demand is now 16.5% above pre-coronavirus levels on a seasonally-adjusted basis, driven by record-low mortgage rates
• Inventory of homes for sale can’t keep pace with demand. Jerry Diaz, a Redfin agent in Nashville says, “I’m showing a lot of houses, but not selling as many as I could because they’re gone before we can write an offer.” Forty-five percent of the homes under contract in the seven days ended May 15 were on the market less than two weeks
• The migration from expensive metropolitan areas to smaller cities

San Francisco homebuyers are now considering farther-flung suburbs in the Bay Area, where they can get more space for less money, as remote work becomes the norm in the age of coronavirus.

The housing market in Oakland and suburban parts of the Bay Area are recovering at a faster rate than San Francisco or San Jose, which may be an early indication of migration patterns as the future of remote work unfolds. Pending home sales and the number of new listings have begun to pick up throughout the Bay Area in early May after a drastic drop in April,

We reported today that Redfin’s home-buying demand is nearly 17% higher than it was before the coronavirus pandemic, as states ease stay-at-home restrictions and businesses begin to reopen. Below are four charts that highlight other recent developments in the housing market as COVID-19 continues to transform residential real estate.

Sellers Continue to Jump Back In

New listings were down just 24% to 77,000 homes during the seven-day period ending May 15, an improvement from the 30% drop we reported last week, and the 50% decline we saw in mid-April.

“Some sellers have gotten more comfortable putting their homes on the

The lack of housing supply is partly responsible for surprisingly high competition rates.

Nationwide, 41.1% of Redfin offers faced competition in the four weeks ending on May 10. In a handful of metros, the bidding war rate was above 60%. 

The coronavirus pandemic is contributing to a shortage in the number of homes for sale across the U.S. as would-be sellers hold off on listing their homes amid ongoing uncertainty. The lack of inventory has led to a significant amount of bidding wars, particularly for single-family homes priced under $1 million in desirable areas. 

Even before the novel coronavirus took