Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-September

1. New listings have declined significantly year-over-year.

2. This “Sellers’ Strike” has led to inventory growth stalling.

3. And homeowners have continued to borrow against their home equity, shifting from cash-out refinance to home equity loans (so they can keep their low interest 1st mortgage).
…In July, inventory was still low, but increasing quickly. However, the decline in new listings has led to inventory growth stalling recently.

Here is a graph from Realtor.com’s August Housing Trends Report.
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Next week, existing home sales will likely show another sharp year-over-year decline in sales for August – with sales solidly below 5 million SAAR again. Housing starts will probably show further declines (and still a near record number of homes under construction).