Home showing activity continued to slow in October as prospective homebuyers encountered mortgage rates not seen for nearly two decades, according to ShowingTime’s Showing Index released on Monday.
Nationwide, the Showing Index was down 7% month over month and 27.3% year over year, to a reading of 134.7. An index value of 100 is equivalent to the showing activity in January 2014.
“With fewer new listings hitting the market in October and buyers who continue to struggle with affordability challenges, it seems both sides are sitting out this market cooldown,” Mike Lane, vice president of sales and industry for ShowingTime+, said in a statement. “We’re seeing this play out in home showing activity across the country as it continues to drop from pandemic highs, and we expect it to contribute to continued declines in sales heading into the new year.”
Despite these decreases, showing activity is still above its pre-pandemic norm nationally, but it differs greatly from region to region and metro to metro.
While all four major U.S. regions reported annual slowdowns in home showing activity, the West posted the largest yearly decrease and currently sits just six points away from its pandemic low in April 2020, as the cities of Denver, Boise, Seattle, Phoenix and Austin saw fewer than half as many showings per listing on average than in October of last year, in line with the region’s 50% year-over-year decline in showing activity.
In comparison, the South saw a 34% drop year over year in showing activity, while the Midwest and Northeast posted smaller yearly declines, at 23% and 22.4%, respectively.
Austin had the largest annual decrease in showings per listing, with a drop of 55% to a ratio of 3.69 showings per listing, while Boise recorded the largest monthly decline at 39% to 1.54 showings per listing.
