Over the last two years, home buying had become seemingly unattainable for many looking to purchase their first or next home. Inventory levels of houses had a huge effect on this process, in addition to demand. Let’s take a closer and more precise look at what actually happened during this period.

Housing inventory levels across the nation had alarming decreases since the pandemic’s start. Most of the US hasn’t seen this low of inventory since the 1980s! Over the past 2-3 years, many factors played into this housing shortage. These major contributing factors include the Work From Home revolution, the peak of the millennial generation getting to their first-home buying age, low mortgage rates at the start of the pandemic, and supply chain issues within home building. It has truly been the perfect storm for housing inventory to be at a generational low. 

All of the dark brown in the graphic below are areas in the country that have had 30% +  decreases in housing inventory since 2020.

Taking a closer look at our area, you’ll see similar but more dramatic trends to that of the nation. From January 2020 to January 2022, Bozeman had a 66% decrease in inventory of single family homes within the city limits. This is double that of the national average in the same time frame! So if you’ve been wondering if this Bozeman market is comparable to the rest of the country’s housing market… it is a bit of an outlier. 

The graph below is a great visual of the scarcity we’re experiencing today compared to the pre-pandemic era. 

As life starts to get back to semi-normal after these past couple of years, we have started to see a little uptick in housing inventory in our valley. Over the past several months, we have observed the monthly supply of properties within the whole Big Sky MLS has increased by 100% (from a 1 month supply to a 2 month supply)! This gives me a little more promise that our inventory is creeping back to normality. 

But for now, if you have any more questions on inventory levels or the housing market in general, don’t hesitate to reach out. I love to talk stats!

Until next month,

Dianne Click