Housing Inventory on the Rise, Up 12% From Last Year

The supply of homes available for sale in major metropolitan areas grew moderately in March, new data show.

Total listings of homes in 29 metro areas at the end of March were up 2.5% from a month earlier, according to figures compiled by ZipRealty Inc., a real-estate brokerage firm based in Emeryville, Calif. The data cover all listings of single-family homes, condos and town houses on local multiple-listing services in those areas, where Zip operates.

Listings typically increase in March as sellers try to take advantage of the spring home-shopping season, the busiest period of the year for housing sales.

In some cases, people who dont have an urgent need to sell soon have pulled their homes off the market and are awaiting a recovery in the market. Ordinary homeowners wishing to sell face stiff competition from builders that must unload inventory and lenders that have acquired homes through foreclosure.

The inventory was up about 12% from March 2007 in 18 metro areas for which Zip has comparable year-earlier data. –James R. Hagerty