Active listings were around 12% higher in December than a year earlier, signaling annual improvement in purchase options for homebuyers, though overall inventory gains have decelerated since the summer.
Last month, the number of active listings nationwide fell below the 1 million mark for the first time since April, with national inventory — which accounts for all active property listings and those with pending contracts — still 12.5% below typical 2017 to 2019 levels.
Danielle Hale, chief economist at listing platform Realtor.com, commented on the figures in the company’s monthly housing lookback for December, describing last year’s inventory trend as “defined less by broad national trends and more by stark local differences.”
Across regional markets, some metros observed inventory growth and price performance that either tracked or diverged from the broader regional trend in 2025, leaving each regional market with a basket of outliers.
On the surface, for example, the Northeast and Midwest markets remained comparatively tight and resilient, observed Realtor.com, while the South and West posted greater inventory expansion and softer price performance.
In the Northeast, Providence, R.I., experienced faster year-over-year inventory growth and stronger price gains than Pittsburgh, whose performance tracked closely with the regional averages of 11.7% inventory gains and 3.7% price-per-square-foot (PPSF) increases.
According to the report, Cincinnati’s 22.4% inventory gains and 2.2% increase in PPSF served as the Midwest’s benchmark, while Milwaukee played the outlier, posting respective gains of 5.1% and 5.7% in those categories.
In the South, Nashville was the benchmark compared to Washington, D.C., which almost doubled the Tennessee capital’s inventory expansion. In the West, outlier San Diego outshone benchmark Riverside, Calif.
“Some markets told the regional story almost perfectly, while others consistently defied it,” added Hale. “Looking at the housing market through national or even regional averages can miss what’s really happening on the ground.”
The group’s listings data for December also revealed which metro markets across the U.S. have been slowest to regain pre-pandemic inventory levels. All located in the South or West regions, nine of the 50 largest markets now exceed their pre-pandemic inventory levels by at least 25%, led by San Antonio (49.1%), Denver (48.3%) and Austin, Texas (42.3%).
In contrast, 16 of the 50 largest U.S. metros remain at least 25% below their pre-pandemic inventory levels, led by Hartford, Conn. (76.2%), Providence, R.I. (57.1%) and Chicago (55.9%).
