To help emphasize just how limited housing inventory still is, let’s take a look at the latest information on active listings, or homes for sale in a given month, as it compares to more normal levels.

One of the reasons prices didn’t crash like some expected is because there aren’t enough available homes for the number of people who want to buy them. Even with today’s mortgage rates, there are more people looking to buy than there are homes available for sale.

Homebuyers are adapting to today’s mortgage rates and getting used to them as the new normal.

Even though interest rates have been rising the past 12 months, these real estate metrics paint a clear picture of a thriving and competitive market.

Do all those confusing headlines about the housing market leave you with more questions than answers? That’s hard when you’re trying to decide if you’re ready to buy or sell a home. Get your free guides. They’re designed to make sure you have the information you need to make your decision.

Here are two fundamentals that prove this is one of the most foundationally strong housing markets of our lifetime – if not the strongest housing market of our lifetime.

The pandemic profoundly changed real estate over the last few years. The demand for a home of our own skyrocketed as people needed a home office and a big backyard. Now, things are getting back to normal. The ‘unicorns’ have galloped off.

If we take a year-over-year view, home prices stayed positive. To get a more detailed picture of some of the trends in the market, we need to look at monthly data.

The data clearly shows today’s market is very different than it was before the housing crash in 2008.

Even though we’re no longer seeing the buyer frenzy that drove home values up during the pandemic, prices have been relatively flat.