The national inventory of homes for sale in February tumbled 22 precent from the same period a year ago, according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors. The decline held true in all but two — Springfield, Ill. and Philadelphia — of the 146 markets tracked in the report.

On a month-to-month basis, the number of for-sale listings increased 0.5 percent as the calendar approaches the traditionally strong spring buying season. Still, national inventory is near all-time lows. [more]

Housing inventories declined month-over-month

The streak of declining inventories of homes listed for sale nationwide continues into its eighth month. Inventories in January fell 6.6 percent to 1.77 million last month from December 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported from a Realtor.com tally.

The largest year-over-year decline occurred in Fort Lauderdale in January. That city saw a 55 percent drop. [more]

The national existing home inventory has dropped significantly from just 12 months ago, returning to the level seen in mid-2005 before the slump, according to a chart by economics blog Calculated Risk featured by Slate. The drop may signify a return to long-term average levels of residential investment and construction employment, Slate said, which would be encouraging given the historically low levels of both investment and employment during both 2010 and 2011. [Slate]

There were 1.89 million homes on the market at the end of December, a 6 percent drop from November and a 22.3 percent decline from one year ago, according to data from research firm Zelman & Associates, cited by the Wall Street Journal. In fact, there were fewer U.S. homes listed as for sale at the end of 2011 than in any of the previous four years, the figures show.

The drop in inventory may simply be a result of foreclosure backlogs in certain states, the Journal noted, and the fact that a number of sellers have pulled their homes off the market to wait for a turn in prices. [more]

Housing inventory fell by 2.8 percent in the 27 major metropolitan areas between September and October, according to ZipRealty, a real estate tracking firm. This data is atypical for the season, according to another firm, Zelman & Associates, which told the Wall Street Journal that housing inventory generally goes up in October. Some analysts are attributing this trend to the first-time homebuyer tax credit. Although its impact in places like Manhattan is up for debate, the borough saw a 7.6 percent decline in inventory during the same time period.

Supply is down in 28 different major metropolitan housing markets, according to the Wall Street Journal’s quarterly report on residential sales, with the New York City market showing the least amount of change in inventory. The number of homes listed for sale dropped just 2.5 percent in New York City since last quarter, according to the report. Long Island and Queens, listed as separate from the New York City market in the report, saw a 10.8 percent decline in inventory since the same quarter last year. Although all markets evaluated showed declines, the report said that there is major potential for inventory to creep back up, as banks acquire more foreclosed homes in the coming months.