Low inventory continues to plague local housing markets. Even with mortgage rates above 6%, an underlying supply imbalance is impacting residential real estate in cities and towns across America, a MarketWatch analysis shows.
While the overall housing market has cooled nationally, the housing supply gap from slow construction that followed the Great Recession continues to influence a potential homeowner’s ability to buy a home.
The nation’s total housing listings in February reached 945,612, according to Realtor.com, up 13% from February 2022, when listings hit historic lows for the month. But those recent national inventory numbers still remain under the magical 1 million mark going into the spring house-buying season and housing inventory for the entire nation is still down 30% from five years ago.
Because housing markets are best defined at the local level, MarketWatch analyzed data by county to examine which locations have suffered the most significant drops in inventory for February.