After a surprisingly rapid rise in inventory over the previous 5 weeks, last week's increase was relatively modest.

Although still a beefy jump from 30 to 32.2, this was noticeably smaller than the prior 2 weeks and could possibly (?) indicate a slowing of momentum in the cooling trend.

There are very uncertain times, so optimists will probably view this chart favorably. However it also shows that inventory has almost doubled from 16.4 to 32.2 days between mid March and late May. Pessimists can rightly claim that is still a faster increase than we saw in 2005, the last year in which we experienced a similar sudden change following a buying frenzy.

If days of inventory returns to the 120 to 140 area then we will have seen the market return to a normal balance, but if it stays well below that (say 50 to 60) then the seller's market will have survived and upward pricing pressure will still persist.


Market incites provided by the Cromford report.