Data through: October 2026 · updated Nov 6 · Updates: Monthly · Next: Dec 3
MThe three bars show the last 3 months for this indicator, oldest left to newest right. Bar height reflects each reading relative to the other two — the tallest is the highest of the three, the shortest the lowest.
↑ 1.9% MoM↑ 7.4% YoY
Historical context: Currently in the 78th percentile historically — near historically high (favorable) levels.
What this means right now: Housing inventory is between 1.0M and 1.5M — the 2016–2019 range, re-entered in May 2025 (56 of the 124 months since July 2016). Case-Shiller home prices rose a median 5.0% a year in those months.
Active Housing Inventory · Monthly · 2016–2026
NBER recessions
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Monthly values
Active Housing Inventory — the last 12 months
Every month's reading, with the band the heatmap gives it. The chart above shows the same series in full.
Month
Value
Band
Oct 2026
1.2M
Healthy reading
Sep 2026
1.2M
Healthy reading
Aug 2026
1.1M
Healthy reading
Jul 2026
1.1M
Healthy reading
Jun 2026
1.1M
Healthy reading
May 2026
1.1M
Healthy reading
Month-end readings of the same series as the chart. Values are the current record, not point-in-time: a month that has since been revised shows its revised value.
What is the Housing Inventory?
Active housing inventory measures the total number of homes listed for sale at any given time. It is the supply side of the housing market equation — when inventory is low relative to buyer demand, sellers have pricing power and home prices rise. When inventory is high relative to demand, buyers have choices and negotiating power, which moderates or reduces prices.
Housing inventory fell to its lowest since the series began after the pandemic, as owners holding low-rate mortgages stopped listing and years of under-building left few homes for sale. That shortage is the usual explanation for home prices staying high through the highest mortgage rates since 2000 (7.79% in October 2023). The site holds no series on the housing stock itself, so it cannot measure the shortage directly.
How We Color-Code the Housing Inventory
Our heatmap colors this indicator against historically significant thresholds:
Below 300K
Historic low — below 300K listings, a level the series has never reached (its low is 347K, February 2022)
300K – 600K
Very low — 300K to 600K; 22 months, January 2021 to May 2023
600K – 1.0M
Below normal — 600K to 1.0M; 46 of the 124 months since July 2016, in 2020 and 2022–26
1.0M – 1.5M
Healthy — 1.0M to 1.5M, the 2016–2019 range, re-entered in May 2025 (56 of 124 months)
Above 1.5M
High — above 1.5M, a level the series (from July 2016) has never reached; its high is 1.47M
Historical Extremes — What Happened Next?
When this indicator reaches extreme levels, history shows consistent patterns:
Feb 2022Pandemic inventory low
Active listings: 347K
The lowest reading of the series, which begins in July 2016 — about a quarter of the 1.47M it started at. Case-Shiller home prices were rising 20.8% a year in March 2022, the fastest in that record since 1988.
Jul 2016Series high
Active listings: 1.47M
The first month of the Realtor.com series and its highest reading. Inventory drifted down through 2016–2019 to 928K by February 2020, before the pandemic collapse.
2022–2023Rate shock recovery
Inventory more than doubled from its low but stayed below 760K
As the 30-year rate went from 3.4% to 6.9% during 2022, listings rose from 347K in February 2022 to 756K by November 2023 — still a fifth below the February 2020 level. Owners holding low-rate mortgages had little reason to sell, so supply recovered slowly while sales fell.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "months of supply" and how does it relate to inventory?
Months of supply = Active inventory / Monthly sales rate. It measures how long it would take to sell all available homes at the current pace of sales; the usual rule of thumb calls under 4 months a seller's market and over 6 a buyer's. The site does not hold an existing-home months-of-supply series. Its New Home Months' Supply page covers newly built homes, where supply ran from 3.3 months in October 2020 to 10.3 in July 2022.
Why hasn't inventory recovered to normal levels despite high mortgage rates?
The lock-in effect — owners who borrowed when the 30-year rate was near its January 2021 low of 2.65% are reluctant to list, because selling means a new mortgage at the 6% to 7.6% that prevailed through 2023–24. The site holds no count of such owners, but a large share of potential sellers are effectively frozen.
How long does it take for inventory to recover after a rate change?
The site's inventory record covers one rate shift. After the 30-year rate went from 3.4% to 6.9% during 2022, listings took 39 months to get back to 1.0M or above (May 2025) from their February 2022 low. In the 1980s the rate fell from 18.6% (October 1981) to below 10% (April 1986), but the site holds no inventory data for those years.
Does low inventory guarantee rising home prices?
Low inventory has gone with rising prices, but not always. In the months with inventory between 300K and 600K (January 2021 to May 2023) Case-Shiller prices rose a median 18.8% a year. Yet by May 2023, with inventory still low, prices were 0.3% below a year earlier as higher rates cut demand. For prices to rise, supply must be short and buyers able to pay.
What level of housing inventory represents a balanced market between buyers and sellers?
Months of supply (inventory divided by the monthly sales pace) is the standard measure: below 4 months favors sellers and above 6 favors buyers. The raw active listing count tracked here (from Realtor.com) shows whether inventory is building or shrinking. Pre-pandemic inventory ran from about 1.47 million active listings in mid-2016 down to 928,000 in February 2020. The collapse to under 400,000 in early 2022 (a low of 347,000 in February) created the affordability squeeze that persists today.