Inventory has doubled in nearly half of the US’s largest markets
Denver (+100 percent), Austin (+69 percent), Seattle (+60.9 percent), Dallas-Fort Worth (+ 55.5 percent) and San Antonio (+58.3 percent) logged the greatest gains. Realtor.com attributed these gains to two primary factors — robust building activity during and post-pandemic, and a slowdown in homebuyer activity, which has allowed active inventory levels to reach new heights.
“For-sale housing inventory in Denver has doubled compared with the pre-pandemic norm, providing a clear sign of a housing market realignment,” Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said in a written statement.
“In some areas, affordability concerns have also slowed buyer demand, giving the market room to breathe and contributing to gains in homes for sale. In general, we’re seeing strong inventory rebounds in metros that have built more in the [past] six years.”
Danielle Hale | Credit: Realtor.com
Pandemic boomtowns like Austin, Nashville, and Denver are the clearest examples of this correlation, Realtor.com said, with their current inventory levels matching or exceeding pre-pandemic trends. Meanwhile, metros like New York, Boston, Baltimore and Buffalo, which have built less than seven housing units per 100 residents over the past six years, are still struggling to see meaningful inventory increases.
Realtor.com said there are a few outliers in the trend. Despite lagging in new construction starts and completions, San Francisco has more active listings than pre-pandemic trends. Meanwhile, Richmond, Virginia, still has a dearth of listings, despite robust building trends. Affordability seems to be the leading factor in these outliers, the report said, with homebuyers flocking to metros with the best deals, even if listing availability is slim.
Although inventory levels are the best they’ve been in years for many markets, Hale said that doesn’t mean we’re in a buyers’ market.
In May, the market had 4.6 months of supply at the current sales pace — two months away from the six-month threshold for a buyers’ market. Still, homebuyers have greater negotiating power this spring and summer, as days on market in many metros have increased by double digits.
“This milestone underscores both the importance of enabling housing construction and the growing divide in housing conditions across regions, where some markets are rapidly normalizing and others remain stuck in low-supply dynamics,” she said.
Source: https://www.inman.com/2025/07/02/inventory-has-doubled-in-nearly-half-of-the-uss-largest-markets/