One of the most pressing issues in today's housing market is the scarcity of available homes for sale relative to the high demand from prospective buyers. To underscore the extent of this limited housing inventory, let's examine the most recent data on active listings, which represents the number of homes available for sale in a given month, and compare it to levels that are considered more typical.
According to a recent report from Realtor.com:
“On average, active inventory in June was 50.6% below pre-pandemic 2017–2019 levels.”The graph below helps illustrate this point. It uses historical data to provide a more concrete look at how much the numbers are still lagging behind the level of inventory typical of a more normal market (see graph below):
It’s worth noting that 2020-2022 are not included in this graph. That’s because they were truly abnormal years for the housing market. To make the comparison fair, those have been omitted so they don’t distort the data.
When you compare the orange bars for 2023 with the last normal years for the housing market (2017-2019), you can see the count of active listings is still far below the norm.
What Does This Mean for You?
If you're considering selling your house, the current low inventory presents an excellent opportunity to do so. Compared to more typical years, buyers now have fewer options, which continues to impact various crucial statistics in the housing market. Sellers will find encouragement in the following data from the latest Confidence Index released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR):- The percentage of homes that sold in under a month slightly increased to 74%.
- The median number of days on the market decreased to just 18 days, indicating that well-priced homes continue to sell quickly.
- The average number of offers received on recently sold homes rose to 3.3 offers.