Housing December 18th Weekly Update: Inventory Down 1.4% Week-over-week, Up 3.0% Year-over-year

Altos reports that active single-family inventory was down 1.4% week-over-week and is now up 3.0% year-over-year.  Inventory will likely decrease seasonally until the Spring.

Click on graph for larger image.

This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research.

As of December 15th, inventory was at 539 thousand (7-day average), compared to 546 thousand the prior week.   

Year-to-date, inventory is up 9.6% and will likely start at a higher level in 2024 than in 2023, but still far below 2019 levels.

The second graph shows the seasonal pattern for active single-family inventory since 2015.

The red line is for 2023.  The black line is for 2019.  Note that inventory is up from the record low for the same week in 2021, but still well below normal levels.

Inventory was up 3.0% compared to the same week in 2022 (last week it was up 1.9%), and down 34.1% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week down 34.4%). 

Inventory is now solidly above the same week in 2020 levels (dark blue line).

Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube.