July’s active inventory trend has some good news for buyers. Both the month-over-month and year-over-year tracking by the NETAR Home Sales Report shows sellers are putting more homes on the market. 

Even though the increase is small, it’s gradual, and no, it’s not entirely driven by fewer sales. July was the second-best single sales month in the local market’s history. 

The month-over-month gain began in April. That’s the same month the year-over-year trend began its decay. It peaked in March at a 56% deficit when compared to March 2020. In April, it was 55.1%. That single inventory snapshot still pointed to an inventory gap, but by July, it had decayed to 30.2% less inventory than July last year.  

The trend is moving very slow, and there’s no chance it will put a big dent in today’s super-strong sellers’ market. But it does point to the market beginning to stabilize.  

Another data point that reinforces that trend is the price growth rate is also showing some softness. July was the first month this year the year-over-year appreciation has been below 20%. Again, it’s a very slow process.