Housing inventory is climbing in most states year over year, but the pace is slowing. In Washington and Oregon, homebuilders are still focused on clearing spec through affordability adjustments, while national inventory growth has cooled sharply versus a year
In Washington, the inventory picture is still getting fuller—active inventory rose 17% year over year—yet that doesn’t mean the housing market is suddenly healthy everywhere.
At the Bank of America Housing Symposium on Tuesday. PulteGroup’s VP of investor relations. Jim Zeumer. put a fine point on what’s still unresolved in the Pacific Northwest. PulteGroup has “work to do in Oregon and Washington. ” he said. adding that the builder has “work to do to clear spec in some of our Western markets.”.
For PulteGroup, that “work” means making affordability adjustments meant to better match current market conditions in its Oregon and Washington communities. The details matter because the broader U.S. picture is no longer accelerating the way it did a year earlier.
Between May 31, 2025, and May 31, 2026, nationally aggregated inventory rose just 2.2% year over year. When you go back 12 months, the national inventory growth rate was much higher—31.5% year over year.
In ResiClub’s framing, the nationally aggregated housing market has moved from earlier softening into what it calls a “soft” market. The company also cautions that the national number hides a lot of regional nuance—some places are loosening faster than others.
Even with the recent slowdown in inventory growth, the country is still below pre-pandemic inventory levels. Nationally, inventory remains 10.4% below May 2019 levels. And some resale markets—particularly parts of the Midwest and Northeast—remain “tight-ish. ” which helps explain why sellers don’t feel the same pressure everywhere.
The shift is visible in the raw inventory totals for active listings reported by Realtor.com for May of each year: May 2017 at 1. 253. 854; May 2018 at 1. 156. 910; May 2019 at 1. 180. 920; May 2020 at 928. 370; May 2021 at 447. 662; May 2022 at 479. 462; May 2023 at 582. 441; May 2024 at 787. 722; May 2025 at 1. 036. 101; and May 2026 at 1. 058. 693.
From May 2024 to May 2025, active inventory across the country rose by 248,379 homes for sale. From May 2025 to May 2026, it rose by 22,592 homes for sale—an expansion that continues, but at a far slower pace.
While inventory is rising in most markets year over year. the pace of that growth is decelerating in much of the country. shown by side-by-side mapping of changes between May 2024 and May 2025 and between May 2025 and May 2026. Florida—one of the weakest regional markets over the past two years—is now seeing active inventory edge down a little year over year (14%).
That matters because Florida is the kind of market where the supply correction had become a headline in its own right. In ResiClub’s tracking, the intensity of Florida’s housing market correction is easing across many pockets of the state, including particularly in Southwest Florida.
Yet tightness still rules in large sections of the Midwest and Northeast. ResiClub says both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. That’s where sellers are likely—relatively speaking—to have more leverage than in many Southern markets during the summer.
Across the Sunbelt and Mountain West, the opposite pattern shows up more often. Active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of these regions, including metro-area housing markets such as Austin and Punta Gorda, Florida.
ResiClub links that geographic unevenness to pandemic-era price surges and later affordability pressure. Many areas saw major price increases during the pandemic housing boom, stretching home prices compared with local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose. markets such as Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges. relying on local incomes to support “frothy” home prices.
The correction then intensified with an abundance of new home supply in the Sunbelt. Builders. ResiClub says. have been willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives—if they have the margins to do so—to keep deals moving in a shifted market. That strategy doesn’t just affect new construction; it can also cool resale markets. Some buyers who might have considered existing homes instead opted for new homes with more favorable deals over the past couple of years. which put additional upward pressure on resale inventory.
By the end of May 2026. 16 states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Alabama. Arizona. Arkansas. Colorado. Florida. Hawaii. Idaho. Nebraska. North Carolina. Oklahoma. Oregon. South Carolina. Tennessee. Texas. Utah. and Washington. The District of Columbia—excluded from the table referenced—was also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels.
The big takeaway is that the post-boom softening has lost momentum and inventory growth is decelerating year over year. But the nationally aggregated market remains soft. Home prices are declining in some parts of the Sunbelt. while a large share of Northeast and Midwest markets are still eking out small year-over-year gains. At the national level, home prices are essentially flat year over year.
Even in a market where inventory is rising. the story still turns on timing—on whether buyers and sellers feel a tightening. a release. or something in between. In the Pacific Northwest. PulteGroup’s decision to focus on clearing spec through affordability adjustments is one sign that the “soft” phase is still being actively managed. not simply endured.
housing inventory active listings PulteGroup Jim Zeumer Oregon Washington affordability incentives spec homes Realtor.com Bank of America Housing Symposium Midwest housing Northeast housing Sunbelt housing Austin Punta Gorda Florida