• Active inventory continued to grow, increasing 34% above one year ago. … This week’s big jump in the active inventory trend (from 31% last week to 34% this week), even as new listings remain low, suggests that buyers are likely being squeezed by the renewed advance of mortgage rates which were very near 7% last week and are likely to top that mark this week.
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• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were again down, dropping 15% from one year ago. This week marks the fifteenth straight week of year over year declines in the number of new listings coming up for sale. Seasonally, fewer homeowners contemplate a home sale as the temperature cools and the holidays approach. Still, the consistent declines relative to one year ago signal dwindling enthusiasm on the part of potential sellers.
Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com.
Note the rapid increase in the YoY change earlier this year, from down 30% at the beginning of the year, to up 29% YoY at the beginning of July.