Wichita housing market cooling off after pandemic boom

Housing prices have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a new study identifies Wichita as one of the most rapidly cooling housing markets in the country.

Nationwide, the median price for an existing home swelled by 23.4% year over year between June 2020 and June 2021.

But the median listing price for a Wichita home actually fell by 7.28% from summer 2020 to summer 2021, according to a study by Insurify, an insurance comparison service.

Wichita ranks fifth among U.S. housing markets that have cooled from the pandemic boom behind Milwaukee, Wisconsin (-17.38%), Winston-Salem, North Carolina (-12.36%), Greensboro, North Carolina (-11.76%) and Columbus, Ohio (-7.44%).

That analysis is based on information from Realtor.com, which provides weekly data on median listing prices, days on the market and number of price-reduced listings.

From summer 2020 to summer 2021, the average number of days for a Wichita home to be on the market fell by 30.13%, indicating that although prices are falling, the demand for housing in Wichita is not flagging.

Experts say high housing demand nationwide is partially due to a failure to anticipate housing needs, resulting in a lack of available homes.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the U.S. has underbuilt its housing needs by at least 5.5 million units in the last 20 years.

Roughly 65% of American households are owner-occupied, but a report from the Urban Institute predicts that in 20 years, the U.S. homeownership rate will decline to 62% as more Americans get locked out of the housing market.

This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 12:07 PM.