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The 18 states back above pre-pandemic 2019 housing market inventory levels

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Nationally aggregated inventory is up +3.8% on a year-over-year basis between August 31, 2025 and August 31, 2026.

While that’s accelerated a tad from the +1.9% year-over-year inventory growth low point in June, it’s decelerated significantly since last year.

If you go back 12 months, that year-over-year national inventory growth rate was much higher (+20.8%). After a period of a burst of softening in which leverage shifted more toward homebuyers, the supply-demand balance in the nationally aggregated housing market has been more stable over the past year, settling into what ResiClub considers a “soft” market. Again, for that comment, ResiClub is talking about the nationally aggregated market—regionally and locally there’s a lot of nuance.

Given that long-term yields and mortgage rates have jumped back up to a 52-week high, we’ll keep an eye out to see if that nationally aggregated softening regains momentum as we head into the seasonally soft window.

Nationally, we’re still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-7.7% below August 2019).

August inventory/active listings total, according to Realtor.com:

  • August 2017 -> 1,325,358
  • August 2018 -> 1,285,666
  • August 2019 -> 1,235,257
  • August 2020 -> 779,558
  • August 2021 -> 574,638 (Pandemic Housing Boom overheating)
  • August 2022 -> 726,779
  • August 2023 -> 669,750
  • August 2024 -> 909,344
  • August 2025 -> 1,098,681
  • August 2026 -> 1,140,035

Between August 2024 and August 2025, U.S. active inventory across the country rose by +189,337 homes for sale.

Between August 2025 and August 2026, U.S. active inventory across the country rose by +41,354 homes for sale.

Below is the year-over-year active inventory percentage change by state.

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While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, the pace of growth is more mild than a year ago (see the side-by-side maps below). In fact, Florida—home to many of the weakest regional housing markets over the past two years—is now seeing active inventory edge down a little year-over-year (-12%).

LEFT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between August 2024 and August 2025

RIGHT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between August 2025 and August 2026

And while active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish.

As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across certain parts of the Midwest and Northeast. That’s where home sellers over the past three years were more likely, relatively speaking, to have more power than their peers in many Southern markets.

In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro area housing markets such as Punta Gorda and Austin.

Many of these areas saw major price surges during the Pandemic Housing Boom, with home prices getting stretched compared to local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices.

This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market: Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, opting for new homes with more favorable deals over the past couple years—which then put some additional upward pressure on resale inventory.

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At the end of August 2026, 18 states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbia is also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels too.)

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Big picture: Over the past year the post-boom softening burst hasn’t been as strong as it was in 2024 or 2025, and inventory growth has decelerated on a year-over-year basis. That said, the nationally aggregated housing market remains soft as the market passing through the cyclical cooling window. While home prices are declining in some parts of the Sun Belt, a large share of Northeast and Midwest markets are still eking out mild year-over-year gains. At the national level, home prices are essentially flat year-over-year.

Below is another version of the table above—but this one includes every month since January 2017.

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If you’d like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below.

As ResiClub has been closely documenting, Florida—which has been the epicenter of housing market weakness over the past 2.5 years, particularly in Southwest Florida—is no longer seeing the same upward burst in inventory. Indeed, the intensity of Florida’s housing market correction is easing across many pockets of the state.

There are still pockets of weakness in Florida, particularly in certain pockets of Southwest Florida, but the burst of softening has let up. Some builders have also reported that their affordability adjustments have helped them better meet the market in Florida. To really get a sense of the ZIP Code nuances, I recommend using the ResiClub Terminal.

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