A couple stand in front of their new home and smile at each other.
Homes are typically taking just six days to be sold nationwide in a "red-hot" market.
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  • US houses sold in an average of six days in May, one day shorter than in April, a Zillow report said.
  • House prices rose 1.7% from April amid a shortage of new listings and high demand.
  • The housing market is one of the hottest in history.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Houses are selling quicker than ever before in the US, according to a report by real-estate site Zillow.

Newly listed homes nationwide typically took six days to go under contract in May, which was one day shorter than in April, according to the report. Homes in Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Columbus typically took just three days to be sold, the report said.

Zillow also said that high demand in one of the hottest housing markets in history and a lack of supply had pushed up prices. Typical house prices rose 13.2% year-on-year in May to $287,148, up 1.7% from April.

And rising home values show "virtually no signs of slowing as sky-high demand runs headlong into inadequate supply," the report said.

But there are signs that the supply crunch could be easing. The report said that housing inventory – the number of new homes listed for sale – rose 3.9% over April, which was the first monthly rise in for-sale homes since July 2020.

The number of for-sale homes jumped 30.3% in San Jose, and 25.6% in San Francisco from a year ago, the report said. But inventory was still down 31.2% nationwide from the same period a year ago, it said.

In April, just under half of newly listed homes were sold within a week, and 76% were sold within a month, Zillow said.

Some buyers have been moving from coastal cities to states such as Texas and Florida during the pandemic as many jobs went remote. A Zillow survey in April said that 11% of Americans have moved since the pandemic hit last year.

Zillow did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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