Housing Market Spotlight: How to read national housing trends in your local market

The national housing market looks remarkably stable right now. But that stability is hiding very different versions of housing normalization at the local level. In this week’s Housing Market Tracker, HousingWire lead analyst Logan Mohtashami described a market stuck in a low-volatility holding pattern. Active inventory reached 871,063 single-family homes in the week ending Aug. 14, up just 1.3% from a year earlier. New pending sales were down 3% year over year, while 41.7% of active listings had taken a price cut, nearly matching last year’s 42%. Mortgage rates around 6.7% continue to constrain demand without producing the kind of supply growth that would dramatically reset the national market. But HousingWire Data shows a much different picture underneath those averages. In Minneapolis, inventory is surging and asking prices are falling, but buyers are still absorbing new supply. In Denver, sellers are cutting prices faster than buyers are responding. And in Chicago, limited inventory continues to support higher asking prices. Same mortgage-rate environment. Three very different paths toward normalization. The difference comes down to more than whether prices or inventory are risi...