As the Pandemic housing boom fizzled out across the country this summer, we saw inventory jump. In bubbly markets, like Austin and Boise, that inventory jump was greater than 300% between March and August. However, that inventory spike is already fizzling out.
Active listings on Realtor.com across the country jumped by over 100,000 per month in May through July. However, they slowed to slightly over 30,000 additional listings in August. Some experts believe that inventory will start to fall again for the remainder of the year.
What’s going on? For starters, sellers are realizing that buyers are done paying top dollar. Rather than take less, some sellers are simply waiting out the housing downturn. There’s also the rate lock-in effect. Most outstanding mortgages have rates below 5%—with a big chunk even below 3%. If they sell now, they’d be giving up their historically low mortgage rate. That payment jump is hardly appealing for move-up buyers.