April 2025

The ups and downs of home inventory in 2025

MonthNational/CBSAActive Listing CountActive Listing Count Year-over-year
January, 2022National376,973-29.1%
January, 2023National616,86963.6%
January, 2024National665,6037.9%
January, 2025National829,37624.6%
January, 2022Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL15,400-54.0%
January, 2023Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL25,91968.3%
January, 2024Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL32,51525.4%
January, 2025Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL45,79240.8%
January, 2022New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ27,898-30.6%
January, 2023New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ30,3378.7%
January, 2024New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ26,598-12.3%
January, 2025New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ26,6910.4%
January, 2022Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX12,153-24.3%
January, 2023Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX18,70453.9%
January, 2024Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX20,5489.9%
January, 2025Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX25,87925.9%
January, 2022Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA8,667-22.2%
January, 2023Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA15,14274.7%
January, 2024Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA15,4151.8%
January, 2025Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA21,29438.1%
January, 2022Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX4,892-39.4%
January, 2023Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX14,667199.8%
January, 2024Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX15,7827.6%
January, 2025Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX21,42235.7%
January, 2022Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN12,564-29.4%
January, 2023Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN14,03511.7%
January, 2024Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN11,461-18.3%
January, 2025Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN12,4238.4%
January, 2022Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ4,644-6.3%
January, 2023Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ13,486190.4%
January, 2024Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ11,448-15.1%
January, 2025Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ15,86438.6%
January, 2022Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA6,105-40.5%
January, 2023Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA10,56273.0%
January, 2024Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA9,158-13.3%
January, 2025Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA12,17533.0%
January, 2022Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD6,980-12.4%
January, 2023Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD8,73525.1%
January, 2024Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD7,894-9.6%
January, 2025Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD8,80111.5%
January, 2022Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV5,029-20.1%
January, 2023Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV6,63031.8%
January, 2024Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV5,759-13.1%
January, 2025Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV7,82535.9%

As the graph shows, housing inventory has been rising steadily in the past few years, more than doubling from 377k in January 2022 to 829k in January of 2025.Footnote1 This steady rise is a promising sign for buyers entering the market.

One of the more interesting aspects of the housing inventory picture is that conditions can vary widely from region to region and even city to city.

Let’s examine the circumstances that brought us to the current moment, as well as the regional variations.

The overall inventory picture

As mentioned above, housing inventory has made some great strides in the past two years but is still lower than pre-2020 levels.

The lack of inventory still makes this a seller’s market. These days, a good home doesn’t stay on the market long.

Existing homes

Of course, the main culprit holding back housing inventory is the fact that over 76% of current U.S. homeowners have a mortgage rate below 5%. 57.3% have a rate below 4%.Footnote2 At the time this article was written (February 2025), the average mortgage rate hovered around 6.89%.Footnote3

While home prices have risen considerably in recent years, the profit from selling a home is offset by the steep increase in monthly mortgage payments that come with these much higher mortgage rates. To stay at a similar monthly payment, homeowners would have to settle for less home.

Inventory changes by major metropolitan area

One of the more fascinating aspects of the current housing inventory story is the differences from region to region and city to city.

As the chart above shows, from January 2022 to January 2025, Miami’s inventory shot up from 15k to 46k, New York City’s inventory stayed roughly flat from 28k to 27k and Chicago’s inventory remained virtually unchanged, going from 12.6k to 12.4k.Footnote1

Generally speaking, Southern states are seeing more inventory growth than their Northern counterparts. For instance, from January 2022 to January 2025, Houston’s inventory more than doubled from 12k to 26k, Atlanta’s inventory nearly tripled from 8.7k to 21k and Dallas’s inventory quadrupled from 4.9k to 21.4k.

So, regardless of the national average, two crucial factors in how the housing inventory will affect a prospective homebuyer are where they are moving from and where they intend to move to.

The outlook for the near future

The bottom line is that housing inventory is trending upward incrementally and looks to continue to do so. We’re unlikely to see the explosive growth in inventory that we saw in 2020 and 2021. No one could have predicted that unprecedented global event and its drastic and long-lasting effects on the real estate market and the economy as a whole.

1 Realtor.com® Economic Research, Data dates: January 2022 to January 2025, Data Pulled: 2/9/2025

2 “Data Spotlight: The Impact of Changing Mortgage Interest Rates” Written by CFPB Office of Mortgage Markets. Published September 17, 2024. Accessed February 2025.

3 “Mortgage Rates Decrease” Updated 2/6/25. Accessed February 2025.


MAP7597160 | 02/2025