Exclusive: Has the pandemic housing market come to an end? Rising inventory, price drops show shift

• At $407, 600, the median existing-home sales price exceeded $400,000 for the first  in May.
• Pending home sales, a future-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings, dropped 14% in May, according to NAR’s Pending Homes Sales Index
• Nationally, the inventory of homes actively for sale on a typical day in June increased by 19% over the past year, the largest increase in inventory in the data history, according to a report by Realtor.com.

After two years of a super-heated, fast-moving pandemic housing market that saw home prices increase by over 20% year-over-year, can potential homebuyers finally expect a semblance of normalcy in the coming months?

“The unusual market conditions of the pandemic have come to an end,” Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors told USA TODAY. “The sellers just need to understand that whatever last year's price was, they cannot just boost up prices by another 20%. They would not find buyers using that philosophy.”

However, that does not mean home prices are coming down anytime soon. Sellers are lowering listing prices from all-time highs, but they are not likely to return to pre-pandemic prices.