By Kris Hudson | The Wall Street Journal
The national supply of homes for sale is getting squeezed by the small amount of equity millions of would-be sellers have in their properties and relatively weak output from home builders, according to economists speaking Friday at a real estate conference in Miami.
Tight inventory has been a cause of slow sales volume in the housing market this year, experts say. Homes listed for resale in May amounted to a 5.1-month supply. That means it would take that long at the current sales pace to exhaust the available inventory. A balanced market typically has a supply of six to seven months.
The pace of home construction gained momentum this year. But it still amounted in May to just 75% of the annual average from 2000 to 2014.
