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During the Pandemic Housing Boom, housing demand was running so hot—and homes sold so quickly—listings barely even registered as active inventory. Indeed, in October 2021, there were only 565,707 active homes for sale, according to Realtor.com’s data series. That was a staggering -53.8% below the 1,208,311 active listings in October 2019.
At the end of October 2020 and October 2021, not a single one of America’s 200 largest metro area housing markets had more inventory than in pre-pandemic October 2019.
Fast-forward to the end of October 2026, and there were 1,183,520 active homes for sale (just -2.1% below pre-pandemic 2019 levels)—and now 105 of the nation’s 200 largest housing markets have more active inventory than they did in pre-pandemic October 2019.
Among the nation’s 200 largest housing markets, the table below shows the 105 markets where active housing inventory for sale at the end of October 2026 exceeded the levels those respective markets had in October 2019.
While this data cut (active inventory in a market compared to the same month in pre-pandemic 2019) will slowly become less useful over time, it remains useful right now.
One of the common pushbacks I hear when comparing today’s active inventory for sale to 2019 levels is that some markets—like Tampa and Colorado Springs—have larger populations now than they did back in 2019. It’s true that some of the markets with higher inventory today compared to 2019 are also the ones that have experienced notable population growth in recent years. However, that actual population growth—i.e., a larger population base—isn’t the primary reason inventory has jumped so quickly in places like Tampa and Colorado Springs after the Pandemic Housing Boom ended. Rather, it’s because those markets have experienced a sharper weakening in their for-sale market since the Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out and that has helped push up unsold inventory in those markets. This dynamic isn’t unusual. Growth markets that run hotter during housing booms often experience more pronounced cyclical cooling on the back end. As is often the case, stretched fundamentals, decelerated domestic migration, and elevated levels of new construction coming online—combined with an affordability-shifted market—collectively drive a larger supply-demand equilibrium shift. That said, over time, changes in market size—specifically population and total households—will naturally affect what constitutes a “normal” level of active inventory in higher growth markets (like the Dallas metro area). By 2032, for example, comparing active inventory to 2019 levels will be far less meaningful than it has been in 2021-2026.
To get ahead of the "inventory compared to the same month in 2019" metric slowly losing its usefulness, ResiClub has started also using a inventory-per-1,000-household-residents cut (which we already keep in the ResiClub Terminal) when doing our comparison since pre-pandemic 2018-2019. So, for example, today we compared active inventory per household in October 2026 to active inventory per household in the average between October 2018 and October 2019. Switching to this population adjustment to account for shifts in the base effect some impact on the analysis and trend—but the general gist remains.
Note: This is NOT adjusted for sales volume. When looking at months of supply, you’ll find a far greater share of housing markets above 2019 month of supply levels.
Click here for a sortable version of the table below
Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic 2018-2019 levels (or exceeded) have experienced weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 52 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced stronger home price growth over the past 52 months.
Many of the softest housing markets over the past few years, where homebuyers have gained more leverage, are located in the South and Mountain West regions. These areas were among the nation’s top pandemic boomtowns, having experienced significant home price growth during the Pandemic Housing Boom, which stretched housing fundamentals far beyond local income levels. When pandemic-fueled migration slowed and mortgage rates spiked, markets like Cape Coral, Florida, and Austin, Texas, faced challenges as they had to rely on local incomes to sustain frothy home prices. The housing market softening in these areas was further accelerated by the abundance of new home supply in the pipeline across the Sun Belt. Builders are often more willing to reduce net effective prices or make other affordability adjustments to move product in a shifted market. Those adjustments in the new construction market then create an additional cooling effect on the resale market, as some buyers who might have opted for an existing home shift their focus to new homes where deals are still available.
In contrast, many Northeast and Midwest markets were less reliant on pandemic migration and have less new home construction in progress. With lower exposure to that demand shock, active inventory in these Midwest and Northeast regions has remained relatively tighter, keeping the advantage in the hands of home sellers (at least relatively speaking).
That said, as national active inventory continues to climb (up +7.6% year-over-year), some of the biggest year-over-year percentage gains of late have occurred in pockets of the Midwest and Northeast. To a degree, however, some of that is a base effect: inventory in the Midwest and Northeast was so low recently that a given increase in listings produces a larger percentage gain than the same increase would in a Sun Belt market.