• Active inventory declined, with for-sale homes lagging behind year ago levels by 2.0%. For 18 straight weeks, the number of homes available for sale has registered below that of the previous year. … The number of for-sale homes registered 45.1% below typical pre-pandemic levels in September.
• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were down again this week, by 1.0% from one year ago. Since mid-2022, new listings have registered lower than prior year levels, as the mortgage-rate lock-in effect freezes homeowners with low-rate existing mortgages in place. Although the year over year declines are smaller now than the double-digit pace seen earlier in 2023, declines from the pre-pandemic period are still substantial.
Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com.
Inventory was down 2.0% year-over-year – this was the eighteenth consecutive week with a YoY decrease following 58 consecutive weeks with a YoY increase in inventory.