Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.
At the end of March 2025, national active housing inventory for sale was up 28.5% year-over-year. That year-over-year active inventory growth is happening just about everywhere.
The recent jump in active inventory for sale tells us that homebuyers have gained some leverage in most housing markets over the past year. Some “seller’s markets have turned into “balanced markets,” while some “balanced markets” have turned into “buyer’s markets.”
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}}))}();
While active listings are rising year-over-year in most regional housing markets, most markets are still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels. (In March 2025, national active housing inventory for sale was still 20% below pre-pandemic March 2019 levels.)
However, by late 2025, it’s possible that nearly half of U.S. metro area housing markets could be above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels.
Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 30 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced stronger home price growth over that period.
Many of the softest housing markets, where homebuyers have gained leverage, are located in Gulf Coast and Mountain West regions. These areas were home to many of the nation’s top pandemic boomtowns, which experienced significant home price growth that stretched housing prices beyond local income levels.
That said, even tighter markets in the Northeast and Midwest are starting to see inventory growth pickup.