by Calculated Risk on 11/29/2021 11:09:00 AM

Tracking existing home inventory is very important this year and in 2022.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research.

As of November 26th, inventory was at 375 thousand (7-day average), compared to 499 thousand for the same week a year ago.  That is a decline of 24.9%.  Inventory is down 2.6% from last week.

Compared to the same week in 2019, inventory is down 56.3% from 859 thousand.  A week ago, inventory was at 385 thousand, and was down 25.2% YoY.   

Seasonally, inventory bottomed in April (usually inventory bottoms in January or February). Inventory was about 22% above the record low in early April.

Inventory peaked for the year in early September.   Twelve weeks ago, inventory was at 437 thousand (the peak for the year), so inventory is currently off about 14.3% from the peak for the year.  

Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube.  

Altos Research has also seen a significant pickup in price decreases - now well above the level of a year ago - but still below a normal rate for November.