Real estate website Zillow said Tuesday that the number of for-sale homes in the U.S. is at its lowest point in seven years, and could be poised to fall further.
Inventory fell 7.5% from December 2018 to December 2019, it said. In St. Louis, inventory was down 11%. Only four of the largest 35 housing markets saw inventory rise: San Antonio (up 8.1%), Detroit (up 7.6%), Atlanta (up 1.8%) and Chicago (up 0.6%).
U.S. home values grew 3.7% in 2019 to $244,054, and the typical U.S. rent is $1,600, up 2.6% in 2019. The figures in St. Louis were $177,525, up 3.4%, and $1,040, up 5.1%.
"The end of 2019 looks a whole lot different than we might have expected at the beginning of the year," Skylar Olsen, director of economic research at Zillow, said in a statement. "A year ago, a combination of a government shutdown, stock market slump and mortgage rate spike caused a long-anticipated inventory rise. That supposed boom turned out to be a short-lived mirage as buyers came back into the market and more than erased the inventory gains. As a natural reaction, the recent slowdown in home values looks like it's set to reverse back to accelerating growth right as we head into home shopping season with demand outpacing supply."