In a perfectly balanced market, the number of available homes for sale would be equal to the number of interested home buyers. There’d be no price spikes or bidding wars and buyers would have no trouble finding a home that checks off every item on their wish list. Unfortunately, that’s not how things work, especially in the current housing market. These days, the market is imbalanced, with the number of homes for sale still trailing far behind pre-pandemic levels. In fact, according to one recent analysis, overall inventory is 40 percent lower than it was before the pandemic, with new listings down 16 percent in September from one year earlier. So far this year, there have been around 11 percent fewer homes listed for sale than at the same point in 2019. Put simply, the housing supply remains low. That means, even with buyer demand slowing from last year’s pace, there’s still a pretty significant imbalance between the number of homes for sale and the number of potential home buyers. (source)
