By Michael Kolomatsky | New York Times
The pandemic housing market across the U.S. is putting interested buyers in a serious bind: Demand for new homes is on the rise but homeowners are largely staying put, meaning inventory is limited, competition is heated and prices are spiking. Among the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, 38 percent fewer homes were on the market in the third quarter of 2020 than during the same period last year, according to a study from Nerdwallet, the personal-finance company.
“Its wild to see how the seasonal fluctuations have been disrupted,” said Elizabeth Renter, a Nerdwallet data analyst and the author of the study. “It’s so out of whack.”
In 45 of the 50 metro areas, the number of listings fell by at least 25 percent year over year. The smallest decrease was 11 percent in Las Vegas. But some markets had much greater declines than others; in five, inventory dropped more than 50 percent.
