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  • Each of the Past 7 Julys Had the Lowest Inventory of Existing Homes on Record. Inventory Fell for 16 Years. One Big Reason: Technology

Each of the Past 7 Julys Had the Lowest Inventory of Existing Homes on Record. Inventory Fell for 16 Years. One Big Reason: Technology

August 24, 2023

by Wolf Richter Wolf Street

A home enters inventory when it’s listed for sale and exits inventory when the sale closes. Technology sped up the clunky processes in between.

There has been a lot of noise about how the inventory of existing homes in July, at 1.11 million, was the lowest for any July on record. It wasn’t actually the lowest inventory on record; that was in January and February 2022, with 850,000 homes in inventory. (July sales also dropped about 25% from the the last two Julys before the pandemic).

But each one of the last seven Julys – 2017 through 2023 – was the lowest July on record. Inventories have been declining ever since the inventory peak of the housing bubble in July 2007. Of those 16 years, inventories rose year-over-year in only two Julys, in 2010 and 2014.