The number of US homes for sale is slowly returning to normal
ResiClub co-founder and editor-in-chief Lance Lambert discusses the U.S. housing affordability crisis on 'Making Money.'
The number of homes for sale on the market is finally starting to return to normal, helping to ease the nation's painful housing shortage.
A new report from Realtor.com shows that the total number of homes for sale, including homes that were under contract but not yet sold, rose by 6.2% in May compared with the same time a year ago.
In fact, there were 35.2% more homes actively for sale on a typical day in May than there were one year ago, marking the seventh straight month of annual inventory growth, according to the report.
There are other signs of improvement on the inventory front. For the first five months of the year, housing inventory was at the highest level since 2020. However, it remains extremely low when compared with the typical pre-pandemic level, with supply still down a stunning 34.2% from the levels seen from 2017 to 2019.
MORTGAGE CALCULATOR: SEE HOW MUCH HIGHER RATES COULD COST YOU
Rates have been slow to retreat, but home prices have remained stubbornly high as buyers deal with limited inventory. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
«We expect a still-sizable gap between 2024 housing inventory and the pre-pandemic housing market to persist as it closes only gradually,» said the report, which was authored by economist Danielle Hale and economic researcher Sabrina Speianu.
The lack of available homes for sale is keeping prices uncomfortably high, even though mortgage rates are hovering near the highest level in two decades. Sellers who locked in a low mortgage rate before the pandemic began have been reluctant to sell, leaving few options for eager
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