A Look At The Housing Inventory Problem

The housing market had less than four months’ supply of inventory from December through February, which was well under the six month supply a healthy market has, and the post-recession high of 12 months in 2010.

The lack of available houses is a major problem, and BloombergMarkets produced four charts that show just what is going on.

Home prices are outpacing income growth, and while new housing is being built, the pace is considerably short of what is needed. More homeowners believe it is a better time to buy than sell, further fueling demand.

Higher borrowing costs aren’t helping either. The average nationwide 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 4.23 percent in the week ended Thursday. That means the monthly payment for each $100,000 borrowed would cost almost $50 more than it did as recently as October, when the rate was 3.42 percent.

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