First, a definition...

Detached Resale Home Sales = not townhouses, not duplexes, not condos, not new homes

Now, then, an observation...

Detached Resale Home Sales have declined 39% over the past two years when looking at first 2.5 (ish) months of the year. 

Oops, wait, another observation...

Detached Resale Home Sales have dropped all the way down to... pre covid norms.

In the three years leading up to Covid (2017, 2018, 2019) we saw home sales between January 1 and March 13 totaling 99, 101 and 103 home sales for each of the above referenced years.

But then, the three most recent years showed a very different pace of sales...

Jan 1 - Mar 13 of 2020 = 136 sales!

Jan 1 - Mar 13 of 2021 = 164 sales!

Jan 1 - Mar 13 of 2022 = 136 sales!

But, then, back to what seems to have been the pre-Covid norm...

Jan 1 - Mar 13 of 2023 = wait for it... 100 sales

So, two things seem to be true right now...

There are significantly (!!!) fewer detached, resale homes selling right now compared to how many we saw during the same timeframe over the past three years.

But, yet, the number of detached, resale homes selling right now is quite normal per the historical trends before Covid started messing with the housing market.

Prospective home buyers in 2023 should thus realize that...

[1]  There will likely be a historically normal number of homes that you could buy this year... if we ignore the three most recent years.

[2]  There will be far fewer options of homes to buy this year compared to last year and the year before.

[3]  There may very well be more competition from other buyers for that smaller number of homes that will be available for purchase.

As you can see through all of this -- the decline in home sales is very much due to a restrained supply (only so many sellers willing to sell) rather than a restrained demand (only so many buyers wanting to buy).