Where Have All the Houses Gone?

[Neil Narayan]

The inventory of homes for sale is startlingly low. The pandemic is part of the reason, but it’s not the whole story.

Today, if you’re looking for one, you’re likely to see only about half as many homes for sale as were available last winter, according to data from Altos Research, a firm that tracks the market nationwide. That’s a record-shattering decline in inventory, following years of steady erosion.

The pandemic will also eventually subside, and people will gain more certainty about remote work, and more confidence about having strangers in their homes. But for anyone waiting for the typical spring surge in inventory, these reasons for optimism may not materialize in time.

In normal years, inventory hits its annual low point around now in February and then starts to trend up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/0...