by Calculated Risk on 1/22/2024 08:21:00 AM

Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 0.2% week-over-week.  It is not unusually to get a small increase after the holidays; however, inventory will likely decrease a little seasonally until the Spring (it could remain mostly flat for a few months like in 2019).

Click on graph for larger image.

This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research.

As of January 19th, inventory was at 506 thousand (7-day average), compared to 505 thousand the prior week.   

Inventory is still far below pre-pandemic levels.

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

The red line is for 2024.  The black line is for 2019.  Note that inventory is up from the record low for the same week in 2022, but still well below normal levels.

Inventory was up 7.1% compared to the same week in 2023 (last week it was up 6.7%), and down 38.6% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week down 38.0%). 

Back in June 2023, inventory was down almost 54% compared to 2019, so the gap to more normal inventory levels has closed a little.

Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube.