Housing market conditions have been pretty consistent over the past few years. Inventory and mortgage rates have remained low while buyer demand and home prices have continued to increase. Even during a global pandemic, conditions remained remarkably steady. There are a number of reasons for this and the latest outlook from Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research Group highlights a few. But, Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief economist, says the imbalance between supply and demand is the main issue. “Strong demand for housing continues to run up against a long-running lack of supply,” Duncan said. “We’ve seen this disconnect lead to rapid house price gains over the past year … and many of the supply constraints that home builders face are likely to persist in the near term, so this upward pricing pressure is not likely to be as transitory as many of the current inflation drivers.” In other words, home buyers shouldn’t expect conditions to change too dramatically in the near future. (source)