[ackbar03]

This whole inventory argument is genuinely confusing to me and I never quite understood why everyone was talking about a sudden inventory "shortage" around 2020. Did a large number of houses suddenly get destroyed? Or was there a sudden massive increase in population?

If neither of those things happened, then in my opinion there isn't actually a "shortage", and the extra demand is maybe just from remote working and low interest rates. If those factors retreat and become less favorable, I presume the demand will retreat and new buyers will crawl back to wherever they were living before and this "shortage" will disappear as quickly as it came.

[jjeaff]

The sudden inventory shortage was due to the pandemic. Many people took their houses off the market in order to wait and see how things were going to play out. Hiring slowed down as well and many that did change jobs went to remote jobs. You don't usually have a reason to move if you don't have a job change. Then of course lots of people working from home caused more demand for homes as those in smaller apartments or houses decided they needed to upgrade.