Two Charts That Show How Home Inventory Impacts Home Prices

If you want to know where the Tri-Cities housing market is headed, it’s helpful to understand where it’s been.

2021 was a year unlike any other. Median home prices hit an all-time high, while homes available (what we call “inventory”) hit an all-time low. Coincidence? Not at all! The law of supply and demand applies in real estate, too. When you have extremely low supply coupled with extremely high demand, prices go up. Here’s what that looked like last year:

As you can see, home prices jumped twice in the spring and then were mostly static for the rest of the year. We went from the $340K range to the $360K range, then jumped again to the $390K-$400K range where prices remained for the entire second half of the year.

What about inventory? As you see below, inventory started to dive in the spring. From April through July — when home prices were rising — we barely had about 200 homes available. And when inventory picked up in the second half of the year, prices remained steady.

Isn’t that interesting to see? That’s why we always talk about both prices and inventory. The two are inextricably linked.

If you’re planning to buy or sell this year, keep an eye on the market. We post detailed monthly housing market reports right here on our blog, and we also share abbreviated versions on our social media channels — Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

And as always, if you ever want more info about what’s going on in the market, get in touch with us anytime.