I feel like we are in an extraordinary moment in time with housing inventory being as low as it is. Take a look at the below graph going back 15 years. You’ll see that inventory has never been as low as it is now. The most recent month of March shows inventory in our entire Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which covers the entire Chicagoland area, is at its lowest point. Usually you see a tick up in inventory in March from February and then it continues to increase until you get to July / August. That is the reason for the ups and downs you see every year. Inventory typically bottoms in January / February and peaks in July / August.
Even with interest rates in the mid 6% range, homes are selling quickly and most homes have multiple offers on them. Some of the offers that come in are packed with goodies such as waiving home inspection, as is, appraisal gaps, etc.
My guess is that when the April inventory numbers come out we will see it start its annual trend of rising and that will then continue until late summer.
There is a lot of talk about a recession on the horizon but it’s hard to see that happening anytime soon with the amount of demand from buyers and renters on the housing front. There still seems to be a lot of people with very good credit, income and cash when putting offers on our listings.