Housing market watch: States where housing inventory just spiked
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When assessing home price momentum, it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings could suggest a market that is heating up.
Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has returned to pre-pandemic levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 30 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic levels have, generally speaking, experienced stronger home price growth over the past 30 months.
How does inventory look in 2025? It looks like—assuming nothing dramatic changes—most states will see rising active housing inventory this year.
National active listings are on the rise (up 27.6% between February 2024 and February 2025). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some sellers markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyers markets.
Nationally, we’re still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (23.1% below February 2019) and some resale markets, in particular big chunks of Midwest and Northeast, still remain tight.
Here are the recent historic totals for inventory/active listings in February, according to Realtor.com:
February 2017: 1,151,120
February 2018: 1,045,153
February 2019: 1,102,660
February 2020: 928,343
February 2021: 464,919 (overheating during the pandemic housing boom)
February 2022: 346,511 (overheating during the pandemic housing boom)
February 2023: 579,264 (mortgage rate shock)
February 2024: 664,716
February 2025: 847,825
The map below shows the year-over-year percentage change in active housing inventory by state.
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