Here’s a headline I’ve been hoping to see forever: preliminary numbers for June indicate that inventory is up! Anecdotally, that seems to fit what I’ve been seeing – it has been marginally easier for me to find active comps on properties than what I’ve been accustomed to, so I expect that uptick will survive any corrections as the numbers firm up. In the mean time, I’m going to chalk this up as a 4th of July miracle and pretend the fireworks yesterday were all about this.
Indications of an increase in inventory isn’t the only big news out in the last week, though. It looks like Redfin is preparing to go public, which has industry wonks in an excited tizzy. The Seattle market is, of course, deep in Redfin’s home turf, so the opportunity to peek under their hood provided by preparations for an IPO is great fun. I’m most interested in seeing what they’re going to fund with that sudden injection of capital. Whatever Redfin is doing, it’s usually worth paying attention to. They both have a deep knowledge of how the industry actually works, and how to competently do tech in the industry, which is an exceedingly rare combination. This will be water cooler fodder for a while to come.
Any other week, the imminent arrival of not one, but several bike share options would have taken the top news slot. This is not that week, but it’s still exciting news. I’m looking forward to the battle of the bikeshares, though I’m likely to sit out active participation in favor of quality time with my trusty cycle.