How Many Homes For Sale in the U.S.?

Doing some market research, I ran across a curious problem.  Apparently, no one knows how many homes are available for sale in the U.S. at any given time.

Realtor.com — the closest thing we have to a national real estate website — claims “Over 3 million new, existing, and rental properties listed by Realtors” right on their front page.

Presumably, those listed by real estate agents who are not Realtors (i.e., members of National Association of Realtors) and FSBO’s and so on are not counted in that 3 million number.

But the United States Department of Justice makes an unsourced claim that there are “over 1.5 million homes” available for sale at any given time in the U.S. (Paragraph 18)

That’s a pretty wide gap, between 1.5 million and 3 million (only by Realtors, no less).

Of course, both sources include that key word, “over” — so if the actual number of 4.5 million, then both could be correct.  Realtor has “over” 3 million, and the DOJ claims “over” 1.5 million for sale.  Interestingly, neither source has any further info on how they came about that number.

How is it that our industry doesn’t even know this basic fact?  Anyone know how many homes are available for sale at any given time in the United States?

-rsh

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Rob Hahn

Managing Partner of 7DS Associates, and the grand poobah of this here blog. Once called "a revolutionary in a really nice suit", people often wonder what I do for a living because I have the temerity to not talk about my clients and my work for clients. Suffice to say that I do strategy work for some of the largest organizations and companies in real estate, as well as some of the smallest startups and agent teams, but usually only on projects that interest me with big implications for reforming this wonderful, crazy, lovable yet frustrating real estate industry of ours.

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2 thoughts on “How Many Homes For Sale in the U.S.?”

  1. I don’t think there is any way that Realtor.com can embelish their listing count without some repercussions. And the DOJ…who knows what they are thinking. It’s always safe to use those words like “over” or “near.” –The number of active listings in the US is greater than or equal to 1. lol

  2. I don’t think there is any way that Realtor.com can embelish their listing count without some repercussions. And the DOJ…who knows what they are thinking. It’s always safe to use those words like “over” or “near.” –The number of active listings in the US is greater than or equal to 1. lol

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