Over the last 12 months, there’s been a general overall lack of inventory across the United States. Across the U.S. this lack of inventory has coincided with high consumer demand for housing. This overall lack of inventory has created sellers’ markets in many communities across the United States. However, the slight housing inventory uptick in June 2018 is a data point to watch, as some markets in the U.S. may begin tipping towards buyers’ markets (i.e., more homes for sale than there are buyers) and, thus, returning some pricing power back to buyers.
As we can see from the chart directly above, as inventory goes down prices will go up. The other dynamic to keep in mind is the effect of mortgage rates, which may creep up. If mortgage rates creep up, then home prices may naturally level off too. Regardless, we’re still seeing a very robust sellers market across the United States.