by Calculated Risk on 9/12/2013 10:27:00 AM

From Nick Timiraos at the WSJ: Sellers Test Housing Market Amid Rising Prices

Housing inventories increased in August and stood just 2.5% below their levels of a year ago, offering the latest sign that more sellers are testing the market after swift home-price gains over the past year.

Nationally, there were 1.98 million homes listed for sale in August, according to a report released Thursday by Realtor.com. That was up by more than 24% from the low point in February and up 1% from July. Inventories have increased for six straight months.

While the overall level of homes for sale remains relatively depressed, the report suggests that inventory may have hit a bottom earlier this year after an extended two-year decline.
emphasis added

Note: Here is the realtor.com site (not updated with August data yet at posting time). The year-over-year decline is getting smaller each month. As an example, Realtor.com reported that the year-over-year decline was 16% in February, 7.3% in June, 5.2% in July - and is now down to just 2.5% (August 2013 inventory is 2.5% below August 2012 inventory).

This was the smallest year-over-year (YoY) decrease since 2011, and it appears the YoY change will turn positive soon.  My guess is the YoY change for inventory will probably turn positive in September and that inventory bottomed in early 2013.