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Currently, we are experiencing an unprecdented shortage of homes on the market across the nation.  Almost every major Real Estate market is seeing multiple bids on almost every fair priced home and several buyers competing for the same home.   Many people have asked me what has caused this shortage.

Here is what happened from my perpsective.  In March of 2020, there was a mass panic when COVID began to spread through the USA.  Sellers did not want sick people walking through their home and many decided not to sell until things improved.  This essentially halted homes coming on the market.  However, buyers will always continue to come into the market.  People have job changes, job transfers, get married, rent runs out, etc.  There are a lot of reasons someone may need to buy a home and these don't stop due to COVID.  So the buyers kept accumulating and the inventory did not.  This caused what little inventory there was to quickly sell.  Now, fast forward to today.   Some sellers would love to sell right now and trade up into a bigger home.  However, there aren't very many homes available to buy.  They know they can sell fast, but they won't have anything to purchase if they do.  So, they continue to stay pat.   

Sometimes foreclosures can help a market like this.   Distressed homes are sometimes bought by investors who will fix up the homes and restore them to new condition and then sell the homes for profit.   These reconditioned homes become new desirable inventory and help stabilize the market.   Unforutnately, the government has put a stay on foreclosure in an effort to help people keep their home even if they can't pay their mortgage.   This has kept that important foreclosure inventory from helping stabilize the shortage of inventory and is another factor on why we can't seem to fix the current state of the market