Number of Homes for Sale
Drops Across the U.S.

The number of homes for sale in 18 major metropolitan areas declined modestly last month.

Total listings of homes in these metro areas at the end of October edged down 1.4% from a month earlier, according to figures compiled by ZipRealty Inc., a real-estate brokerage firm based in Emeryville, Calif. The data cover listings of single-family homes, condominiums and town houses on local multiple-listing services in those areas, where the firm operates.

But total listings at the end of October were still up about 18% from a year earlier in the 17 metro areas for which comparable figures from October 2006 were available.

The only two metro areas that showed an increase in listings during October from a month earlier were Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix, and both were up less than 1%.

Though inventories of homes are no longer growing rapidly as they did in 2005 and 2006, they remain at a very high level in most of the country -- and that has been pushing prices down in many areas. "Sellers are becoming a little more flexible in negotiating prices," says Pat Lashinsky, chief executive of ZipRealty.

Nationwide, the number of detached single-family homes on the market is enough to last 10.2 months at the current sales rate, according to the National Association of Realtors. That is the highest level in nearly 20 years. In Florida's Miami-Dade County, the supply of condos would last about 57 months at the current sales rate, according to Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Inc., a large real-estate brokerage firm there.

Foreclosures also are increasing, and that will lead to more homes being dumped on the market by lenders eager to cut their losses.

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