Even the cheapest homes are waiting for buyers

Yes and No. Inventory IS higher than where it was at this time last year -- by double-digits.

But if you look at quarter-over-quarter changes, the "absorption rate" -- the number of months it would take to clear out inventory at the current sales pace -- is actually dropping.

So the market is slow, but it is also picking up the pace from a fairly abysmal Q1, and some of what we're seeing is that sellers who came on in Q1 (or even last year) who are marking their prices to market (down from a year ago, because of the impact of higher interest rates and the impact of the tax bill) are getting into contract.

ali r.
{upstairs realty}

Does anyone know if the "absorption rate" figures include only sales, or do they also include apartments taken off the market? Since my suspicion is that it includes both, and since we know that the percentage of units being taken off the market without selling has drastically increased recently, lowering of absorption rate wouldn't necessarily indicate a healthy sales market.

From the article:
"In Manhattan, the inventory of sub-$1 million apartments surged 27 percent in June from a year earlier to 3,087, the most for the month since 2013, according to StreetEasy. "

2395 apartments at per this search which includes upper manhattan (harlem, inwood, washington heights etc)
https://streeteasy.com/for-sale/manhattan/status:open%7Cprice:10000-1000000

Of this 329 in Upper Manhattan.

https://streeteasy.com/for-sale/upper/status:open%7Cprice:10000-1000000?refined_search=true

If Grant Long is reading, would love to see Manhattan ex Upper Manhattan numbers for 2013 -current by year.