The supply of existing homes on the market remains low, at 5.2 months in March, according to a report from Freddie Mac.

The total number of homes offered for sale relative to the number of households in the U.S. has been running at the lowest level in more than 30 years.

“The housing recovery is struggling to shift into a higher gear, and obviously there are various imbalances holding this back from happening, but at the heart of the matter it comes down to jobs,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

But these low inventory challenges are the direct offspring of several features of today’s market.

1. Underwater homeowners

Since the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act expired on Dec. 31, 2013, many underwater homeowners are reluctant to short-sell.

CoreLogic reported that 6.5 million homeowners remained underwater as of year-end 2013.

Meanwhile, there was also a sharp decline in short sales at the beginning of 2014, from 5.2% of sales in December to 2.2% of sales in February.

2. Low rates

Many borrowers were able to refinance into record low rates in the past several years.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the average interest rate on single-family mortgages outstanding was 3.9% during the first quarter of 2014, drastically down from the average 30-year fixed-rate average rate of 4.4% for new loans during the quarter.

As a result, homeowners are reluctant to sell their current home and forego the low rate mortgage loan they currently have.

3. REO sales slow

Despite real-estate owned sales remaining strong in some markets, in aggregate REO sales have slowed considerably over the past couple of years.

 

 

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