Market Survey: Inventory Struggles Were Top of Mind for Mid-Atlantic Buyers

Lack of Inventory and Affordability Still Posing Challenges

Inventory and affordability have been the primary constraints to home sales activity for the past several years. While these factors go hand in hand, for the first time in Bright MLS’s subscriber survey inventory edged out prices and mortgage rates as the top reason holding prospective buyers back.

According to the December 2024 survey, 71.0% of buyer agents had a client pause or stop their home search. In the summer, high home prices moved to the biggest deterrent, dethroning too-high mortgage rates. Now, agents say it is not prices or mortgage rates that are the most responsible for keeping buyers out of the market. Rather, not being able to find the right home was the biggest obstacle, with the other two reasons following closely behind.
 

 

Some potential buyers have dipped their toes in only to find a competitive market where they couldn’t compete with cash offers or continued to have their offer rejected. The housing market needs more homes available for sale to alleviate some of the struggles would-be homebuyers are facing.

Some Sellers Also Waiting for Inventory to Loosen

In the December survey, nearly two in five agents said they had been working with a homeowner who decided not to sell their home. For 40% of those prospective home sellers, the reason they are waiting is because they could not find another home to buy.

One listing agent explained, “I believe a lot of people would love to sell but with low inventory of existing homes for sale and bidding wars many have decided to remain.”

A lack of inventory was even more important than mortgage rates. Less than 30% of agents said that they had been working with a homeowner who decided not to sell because they did not want to give up their current mortgage rate. Another 23.3% said they had a client decide not to sell after they were not getting the right offers.

There are many sellers who are not planning to purchase another home in the near future. Nearly half (45.2%) of listing agents stated their seller did not purchase another home and is not in the process of doing so. This segment of sellers should continue to open up inventory and opportunities for buyers in 2025.

Agents and Brokers Expect Stronger Start in 2025

Sentiment has been more stable in 2024 compared to last year, particularly in the fall months. Again, in December, agent and broker optimism about market activity in the coming months improved looking ahead to the new year.

The Bright MLS buyer and seller indices assess market sentiment by comparing the number of agents and brokers who anticipate high to very high activity to the number expecting low to very low activity. A reading above 50 is generally optimistic. Though the seller index for December was 45.7, it is the highest on record since the survey began the question in April 2023. The outlook is over 13 points higher than December 2023.
 

 

The buyer index stands at 60.3 for December 2024, solidly in optimistic territory and more than four points above last year. Consumers and real estate professionals are eagerly awaiting more inventory and lower rates in 2025.

Market forecasts anticipate progress toward a more balanced market in the coming year—although gains will be modest. Still, even slight improvement is good news for buyers and sellers hoping to make their move in 2025.

About Bright

Bright is proud to be the source of truth for comprehensive real estate data in the Mid-Atlantic, with market intelligence currently covering six states (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia) and the District of Columbia. Bright MLS’s innovative tool library—both created and curated—provides services and award-winning support to well over 100k real estate professionals, enabling their delivery on the promise of home to over half a million homebuyers and sellers monthly. In 2023, Bright subscribers facilitated $104B in real estate transactions through the company’s platform.

A total of 431 agents representing recent homebuyers and 525 agents representing recent home sellers responded to Bright MLS’s survey. The survey was conducted between December 6 and December 12, 2024. Full survey results are available here. More research and analysis on the housing market is available from Bright Research.