Speaking in front of institutional investors and money managers on Tuesday at the Bank of America Housing Symposium, PulteGroup\u2019s VP of investor relations, Jim Zeumer, said America\u2019s third-largest homebuilder still has \u201cwork to do in Oregon and Washington. … We have work to do to clear spec in some of our Western markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
By \u201cwork,\u201d he means making affordability adjustments to better align with market conditions in PulteGroup’s Oregon and Washington communities.<\/p>\n
While the state of Washington has seen active inventory rise 17% year over year, nationally aggregated inventory has slowed way down\u2014up just 2.2% on a year-over-year basis between May 31, 2025, and May 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
If you go back 12 months, that year-over-year national inventory growth rate was much higher (31.5%). After a period of softening in which leverage shifted more toward homebuyers, the supply-demand balance in the nationally aggregated housing market has been more stable in recent months, settling into what ResiClub<\/a><\/em> considers a “soft” market. Again, for that comment, ResiClub<\/em> is talking about the nationally aggregated market\u2014regionally and locally, there\u2019s a lot of nuance.<\/p>\n Nationally, we\u2019re still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (10.4% below May 2019). And some resale markets\u2014in particular chunks of the Midwest and Northeast\u2014remain, relatively speaking, <\/em>tight-ish.<\/p>\n May inventory\/active listings total, according to Realtor.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n Between May 2024 and May 2025, U.S. active inventory across the country rose by 248,379 <\/strong>homes for sale.<\/p>\n Between May 2025 and May 2026, U.S. active inventory across the country rose by 22,592<\/strong> homes for sale.<\/p>\n Below is the year-over-year active inventory percentage change by state.<\/p>\n (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();<\/p>\n While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, the pace of growth continues to decelerate across much of the country (see the side-by-side maps below). In fact, Florida\u2014home to many of the weakest regional housing markets over the past two years\u2014is now seeing active inventory edge down a little year over year (14%).<\/p>\n Left:<\/strong> Year-over-year active inventory shift between May 2024 and May 2025<\/em><\/p>\n Right:<\/strong> Year-over-year active inventory shift between May 2025 and May 2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n And while active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish.<\/p>\n As ResiClub<\/a><\/em> has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. That\u2019s where home sellers in the summer are likely, relatively speaking<\/em>, to have more power than their peers in many Southern markets.<\/p>\n In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sunbelt and Mountain West, including metro-area housing markets such as Austin and Punta Gorda, Florida.<\/p>\n Many of these areas saw major price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home prices getting stretched compared with local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices.<\/p>\n This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sunbelt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market: Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, opted for new homes with more favorable deals over the past couple years\u2014which then put some additional upward pressure on resale inventory.<\/p>\n (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();<\/p>\n At the end of May 2026, 16 states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbia\u2014which we left out of this table below\u2014is also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels, too.)<\/p>\n (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();<\/p>\n Big picture: Over the past several months, the post-boom softening has lost momentum, and inventory growth has decelerated on a year-over-year basis. That said, the nationally aggregated housing market remains soft. While home prices are declining in some parts of the Sunbelt<\/a>, a large share of Northeast and Midwest markets are still eking out small year-over-year gains. At the national level, home prices are essentially flat year over year.<\/p>\n Click here<\/em><\/a> for an interactive version of the table below<\/em><\/p>\n Below is another version of the table above\u2014but this one includes every month since January 2017.<\/p>\n (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below.<\/p>\n Florida\u2014which has been the epicenter of housing market weakness over the past two years, particularly in Southwest Florida\u2014is no longer seeing the upward burst in inventory. Indeed, the intensity of Florida\u2019s housing market correction is easing across many pockets of the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();<\/p>\n \n\n
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