Active For-Sale Housing Inventory
The count of unique active for-sale listings across the US (all home types, smoothed), from Zillow Research, monthly since 2018. This is the resale market's shelf: what a buyer can actually choose from — distinct from new-construction inventory, which builders control.
Active listings
- YoY %
- 1.2%
Latest reading
As of July 2026, Housing Inventory (Active listings) stands at 1.39M — up from 1.36M the prior reading, 20% below the August 2018 record of 1.73M. The series bottomed near 700K listings in early 2022 (the pandemic frenzy) against a pre-pandemic norm around 1.5M. Rebuilding inventory with sales still frozen means homes sitting longer — mild price pressure — while inventory rising WITH sales recovering would be a healthy thaw. Read it against existing-home months of supply, which divides this shelf by the sales pace. Series history runs from 2018 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessOpen ↓Close ↑
Full history
Active listings
Year-over-year %
Inventory's annual change — the fastest-turning supply signal in housing. The 2021 trough near 700K listings was the tightest resale market ever recorded.
Methodology & data
Housing Inventory is sourced from Zillow directly from the publisher’s own dataset (Zillow Research public data (for-sale inventory, all homes, smoothed), monthly since 2018). We pull the complete history, chart it on a monthly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Active For-Sale Housing Inventory?
The count of unique active for-sale listings across the US (all home types, smoothed), from Zillow Research, monthly since 2018. This is the resale market's shelf: what a buyer can actually choose from — distinct from new-construction inventory, which builders control.
How do you read Housing Inventory?
The series bottomed near 700K listings in early 2022 (the pandemic frenzy) against a pre-pandemic norm around 1.5M. Rebuilding inventory with sales still frozen means homes sitting longer — mild price pressure — while inventory rising WITH sales recovering would be a healthy thaw. Read it against existing-home months of supply, which divides this shelf by the sales pace.
Where does the Housing Inventory data come from?
Zillow Research public data (for-sale inventory, all homes, smoothed), monthly since 2018. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/housing-inventory.csv.
How often is Housing Inventory updated?
Housing Inventory is a monthly series from Zillow, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts from Zillow.
Active listings
- YoY %
- 1.2%