Although there probably won’t be a big dip in mortgage rates for the prime home buying and selling season, the season is taking shape with guarded optimism. There are more homes on the market now than last year. New listings are on the rise, and analysts think many buyers have surrendered to the reality of high prices and mortgage rates.

Last month’s local mid-month update saw the median sales price settle at $250,000. That’s a little below where it was during the peak of last year’s pace. Given current market dynamics, most don’t think prices will decline, but they don’t expect spikes.

New listings were up last month. So was active inventory. It was a slow increase. The new listings represented a little over a month’s supply at the February sales pace, which should also increase. The thing that has captured the attention of many is inventory in the workforce and affordable housing price range – $120K to $250,000.

Active inventory in that price range was up 27.4% last month. The total was 433 properties. That’s about a third of the active inventory.

New listings in that range were up 10.7%. Those 258 properties accounted for one out of every three new listings. It’s not enough to move the region into an affordable housing market, but it shows there are affordable homes in and more coming into the market.

New listings in the existing affordable market range still trail the $250K-$499,999 sales sweet spot. They were up 24.6%. And the luxury market new listings are up 52%.

New home inventory was stable last month. There were 405 listings.

Although the local inventory picture is looking a little better, the region still has only a little better than two months of inventory. It needs at least four months of inventory for balanced market conditions. That would require about 1,500 new listings.