Year-over-year changes in active inventory

Our first look at the 2025 market was positive for buyers and sellers alike, setting up a strong “buying season.” Housing inventory rebounded since March 2024, climbing to 892,561 active listings by March 2025.^Footnote2 It’s 20% lower than 2019 numbers, but on the rise. By March 2019, active listings had climbed to 1.115 million.^Footnote2 Overall, we’re seeing an upward trend, and if it continues, forecasters predict inventory could return to 2019-like levels by 2026.

For one thing, buyers had more inventory on the market to shop in March 2025, with active listings up 28.5% year-over-year from March 2024.^Footnote3 That’s the 17th consecutive month of year-over-year inventory growth.^Footnote3 New listings coming to market are up 10.2%, and despite relatively high mortgage rates, many homeowners are choosing to go to the market now and list rather than waiting for rates to drop, analysts say. According to Realtor.com® data, all 50 of the largest markets in the U.S. had increases in the inventory of available homes year-over-year from March 2024, with San Jose and Las Vegas leading the way at 68%, followed closely by Denver at 67%.^Footnote4 Additionally, markets including Denver (+75%), San Antonio (+50%) and Dallas (+45%) had active listings above the average we saw between 2017 and 2019.^Footnote4

Median Listing Prices have stayed flat year-over-year at $424,900, even while more competition comes to market, which is good news for most sellers.^Footnote4 However, the monthly trends report from Realtor.com® showed that some sellers had reduced prices in some markets as inventory has started to pile up, with the share of active listings with price reductions at 17.5% in March 2025, an increase of 15% year-over-year and higher than any March since 2016.^Footnote3 Agents will want to advise their clients about their local market so they can set a realistic sale price.

Still, analysts maintain that more choices for buyers should motivate more sales, with increasing supply driving increasing demand. Even in an environment of mild lowered list prices in certain markets, those prices aren’t taking a nosedive and drastically impacting sellers’ margins. From the seller's side, this increase in inventory will help them have more options to buy when they do finally sell (easing the so-called “lock in effect”).

Across the 50 states and the District of Columbia (up 23.8%), active inventory rose in that time span. Only North Dakota (-6%) had a decrease year-over-year in active inventory.^Footnote4 Conversely, 26 states saw flat or decreases year-over-year in median listing prices. The Washington, D.C., market had extremes from +68.9% (Congress Heights) to -23.8% (West End/Foggy Bottom).^Footnote5

In major metropolitan areas, the highest numbers for increasing active inventory were found in the Sun Belt, with three in Florida:^Footnote3

1. Phoenix (33%)
2. Tampa (29%)
3. Jacksonville (27%)
4. San Antonio (25%)
5. Orlando (25%)

States with the highest changes in Active Inventory (March 2025):^Footnote3

1. Nevada: Up 56.9% YoY at 10k active listings
2. California: Up 49.6% YoY at 58k active listings
3. Colorado: Up 48.5% YoY at 21k active listings

States with the lowest changes in Active Inventory (March 2025):^Footnote3

1. North Dakota: Down 6.4% YoY at 1.5k active listings
2. New York: Up 2.9% YoY at 30k active listings
3. West Virginia: Up 6% YoY at 2.9k active listings

The first quarter is usually a good time to evaluate the market and make some predictions for the balance of the year. Based on the trends we saw across the United States in March, it looks like the 2025 buying season will be positive on both sides of the transaction.