14 states are back above pre-pandemic 2019 housing inventory levels

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When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it's important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings could suggest a market that is heating up.

Since the national Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country that shift has varied significantly.

Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 36 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 36 months.

Where is national active inventory headed?

National active listings are on the rise (+21% between August 2024 and August 2025). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some sellers markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyers markets.

Nationally, we’re still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-11% below August 2019) and some resale markets, in particular chunks of the Midwest and Northeast, still remain tight-ish.

While national active inventory is still up year-over-year, the pace of growth has slowed in recent months—more than typical seasonality would suggest—as some sellers have thrown in the towel and delisted (more on that in another piece).

August inventory/active listings* total, according to Realtor.com:

August 2017 -> 1,325,358 📉

August 2018 -> 1,285,666 📉

August 2019 -> 1,235,257 📉

August 2020 -> 779,558 📉

August 2021 -> 574,638 📉 (overheating during the Pandemic Housing Boom)

August 2022 -> 726,779 📈 

August 2023 -> 669,750 📉

August 2024 -> 909,344 📈 

August 2025 -> 1,098,681 📈 

IF we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+189,337 homes for sale), we'd have...

1,288,018 active inventory come August 2026

[Note: That’s not a prediction—I’m just showing what the math looks like if that pace continued]

Below is the year-over-year percentage change by state.

Click here to view an interactive version of the year-over-year map below

While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish (although it's loosening in those places too).

As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. That’s where home sellers this spring had, relatively speaking, more power.

In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro area housing markets such as Punta Gorda and Austin. Many of these areas saw major price surges during the Pandemic Housing Boom, with home prices getting stretched compared to local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Tampa and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices. This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market: Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable deals. That puts additional upward pressure on resale inventory.

In recent months, that softening has accelerated again in West Coast markets too—including much of California.

Click here to view an interactive version of the map below

At the end of August 2025, 14 states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbia—which we left out of this analysis—is also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels too. Softness in D.C. proper’s predates the current admin’s job cuts).

Click here to view an interactive of the chart below (best done on desktop)

Big picture: Over the past few years we’ve observed a softening across many housing markets as strained affordability tempers the fervor of a market that was unsustainably hot during the Pandemic Housing Boom. While home prices are falling some in pockets of the Sun Belt, a big chunk of Northeast and Midwest markets still eked out a little price appreciation this spring. Nationally aggregated home prices have been pretty close to flat in 2025.

Below is another version of the table above—but this one includes every month since January 2017. (Sorry if it’s a little blurry—click the interactive link to see a version that isn’t blurry)

Click here to view an interactive version of the chart below

If you’d like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below. [To better understand ongoing softness and weakness across Florida, read this ResiClub PRO report].

Click here to view an interactive/searchable version of the chart below

Another state seeing very noticeable softness: Colorado.

All the charts above show active listings*, or everything currently for sale.

Below is a look at the national chart for new listings**, which has been suppressed since mortgage rates spiked. Some analysts call this the “lock-in effect.” Some homeowners who would otherwise like to sell and buy something else have opted to stay put to avoid losing their lower mortgage rate/monthly payment or they simply can’t afford to buy at these prices/rates.

That said, this so-called “lock-in effect” could be easing up…

Look at the number of new listings in 2025—it’s higher than in 2023 and 2024. However, it hasn’t translated into a noticeable uptick in existing home sales. If new listings continue to rise and aren’t absorbed, it could put additional upward pressure on active inventory.

* Active listings (i.e. what ResiClub often calls “inventory”) = “The count of active listings within the specified geography during the specified month. The active listing count tracks the number of for sale properties on the market, excluding pending listings where a pending status is available. This is a snapshot measure of how many active listings can be expected on any given day of the specified month” according to Realtor.com.

** New listings = “The count of new listings added to the market within the specified geography. The new listing count represents a typical week’s worth of new listings in a given month. The new listing count can be multiplied by the number of weeks in a month to produce a monthly new listing count” according to Realtor.com.

Over the past week, ResiClub PRO members (paid tier) got these 3 additional housing research articles:

Housing market's greatest regional retreats trace back to Pandemic Housing Boom overstretch

Understanding the mortgage 'spread': How it could help lower mortgage rates in 2026

Two housing booms, two different aftermaths: Comparing the housing market after 2006 and 2022