Options are important for home buyers. If you’re looking for a house to buy, having many homes to choose from is ideal for a couple of reasons. First, it raises the odds you’ll find one that fits your needs and checks the boxes on your wishlist. Secondly, a better balanced market, where the number of buyers and available homes are closely matched, means stable prices and less competition. In other words, an increasing number of homes for sale is good for home buyers – especially in a market low on homes. That’s the case today. The inventory of homes actively for sale is currently down 30-to-60 percent from pre-pandemic levels. But fortunately for prospective home buyers, one new analysis found the number of newly listed homes for sale saw a summer bump, climbing 3.5 percent from July to August. That’s an encouraging step in the right direction. It also puts new listings just 7.5 percent lower year-over-year, after being down 20.8 percent in July. (source)