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During the Pandemic Housing Boom, housing demand surged rapidly amid ultralow interest rates, stimulus, and the remote work boom—which increased demand for space and unlocked “WFH arbitrage” as high earners were able to keep their income from a job in say, NYC or L.A., and buy in say Austin or Tampa. Federal Reserve researchers estimate “new construction would have had to increase by roughly 300% to absorb the pandemic-era surge in demand.” Unlike housing demand, housing stock supply isn’t as elastic and can’t ramp up as quickly. As a result, the heightened pandemic era demand drained the market of active inventory and overheated home prices, with U.S. home prices rising a staggering 43.2% between March 2020 and June 2022.

While many commentators view active inventory and months of supply simply as measures of “supply,” ResiClub sees them more as proxies for the supply-demand equilibrium. Because housing demand is more elastic than housing stock, large swings in active inventory or months of supply are usually driven by shifts in demand. For example, during the Pandemic Housing Boom, surging demand caused homes to sell faster—pushing active inventory down, even as new listings remained steady. Conversely, in recent years, weakening demand has led to slower sales, causing active inventory to rise—even as new listings fell below trend.

Indeed, during the ravenous housing demand at the height of the Pandemic Housing Boom in April 2022, almost the entire country was at least -50% below pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels.

BROWN = Active housing inventory for sale in April 2022 was BELOW pre-pandemic 2019 levels

GREEN = Active housing inventory for sale in April 2022 was ABOVE pre-pandemic 2019 levels

Of course, now it’s a different picture: National active inventory is on a multiyear rise.

Not long after mortgage rates spiked in 2022—causing affordability to reflect the reality of the sharp home price increases during the Pandemic Housing Boom—and return-to-office gained a bit of momentum, national demand in the for-sale market pulled back and the Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out. Initially, in the second half of 2022, that housing demand pullback triggered a “fever breaking” in a number of markets—particularly in rate-sensitive West Coast housing markets and in pandemic boomtowns like Austin and Boise—causing active inventory to spike and pushing those markets into correction-mode in the second half of 2022.

Heading into 2023, many of those same Western and pandemic boomtown marketsstabilized, as the spring seasonal demand—coupled with still-tight active inventory levels—was enough to temporarily firm up the market. For a bit, national active inventory stopped rising year-over-year.

However, that period of national inventory stabilization didn’t last. Amid still slumped housing demand, national active inventory began to rise again—and we’re now in the midst of an 18-month streak of year-over-year increases in national active listings.

Where active inventory/months of supply has risen the most, homebuyers have gained the most leverage. Generally speaking, housing markets where inventoryhas returned to pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced weaker home price growthover the past 34 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced stronger home price growth over the past 34 months.

BROWN = Active housing inventory for sale in April 2025 was BELOW pre-pandemic 2019 levels

GREEN = Active housing inventory for sale in April 2025 was ABOVE pre-pandemic 2019 levels

As ResiClub has closely documented, that picture varies significantly across the country: much of the Northeast and Midwest remain below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels, while many parts of the Mountain West and Gulf regions have bounced back.

Many of the softest housing markets, where homebuyers have gained leverage, are located in Gulf Coast and Mountain West regions. These areas were among the nation’s top pandemic boomtowns, having experienced significant home price growth during the Pandemic Housing Boom, which stretched housing fundamentals far beyond local income levels. When pandemic-fueled domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates spiked, markets like Cape Coral, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, faced challenges as they had to rely on local incomes to sustain frothy home prices. The housing market softening in these areas was further accelerated by higher levels of new home supply in the pipeline across the Sun Belt. Builders in these regions are often willing to reduce prices or make other affordability adjustments to maintain sales in a shifted environment. These adjustments in the new construction market also create a cooling effect on the resale market, as some buyers who might have opted for an existing home shift their focus to new homes where deals are still available.

In contrast, many Northeast and Midwest markets were less reliant on pandemic migration and have less new home construction in progress. With lower exposure to that domestic migration pullback demand shock—and fewer builders doing big affordability adjustments to move product—active inventory in these Midwest and Northeast regions has remained relatively tight—with home sellers retaining more power relative to their peers in the Gulf and Mountain West regions.

While national active inventory at the end of April 2025 was still -16% below pre-pandemic April 2019, ResiClub expects national active inventory to surpass pre-pandemic 2019 levels later this year.

Big picture: The housing market is still undergoing a process of normalization following the surge in housing demand during the Pandemic Housing Boom, when home prices went up too fast, too quickly. To date, that normalization process has pushed some markets—including Austin, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco, Boise, Punta Gorda, Cape Coral, and Tampa—into correction-mode. In some other areas, so far, it has caused home price growth to stall out. Meanwhile, some markets still remain tight and have only seen a deceleration in home price growth from the highs of the Pandemic Housing Boom.

ResiClub PRO members can access my latest monthly inventory analysishere, and my latest monthly home price analysishere.
#housing #market #shift #explainedand #where

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Andor Season 2’s finale.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out IGN's review for Andor Season 2, Episodes 10-12.
Andor Season 2 just wrapped on Disney+, capping off what is easily one of the best Star Wars projects to come out of the Disney era.
In the process, the series leads directly into the events of 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story bringing Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor full circle at last.We already know what happens next for Cassian and the Rebel Alliance.
His tragic future is already set in stone.
But despite that, there’s a lot to unpack in the dramatic finale of Andor, as the series reveals the fates of many major characters and drops a major twist with big ramifications for the Star Wars franchise.
Let’s break down everything that happens and how the series paves the way for future Star Wars adventures.Every IGN Andor ReviewAndor Season 2’s Ending ExplainedAndor Season 2 has been busy chronicling the final four years in the life of Cassian Andor.
Or, at least, the most pivotal moments in those four years.
First, in 4 BBY, we saw Cassian’s mission to steal a prototype TIE Avenger and his temporary imprisonment on Yavin IV, destined to become the new operating base of the fledgling Rebel Alliance.
Then, in 3 BBY, we saw the role Cassian and the Empire each played in propping up the resistance cell known as The Ghorman Front.
Those actions then bore fruit in 2 BBY, as the Empire responded to its manufactured political crisis and instigated the Ghorman Massacre, galvanizing Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma and the Rebels.The series now takes its final bow in 1 BBY, just days before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: A New Hope.
As expected, Andor ends by showing us the final sequence of events leading up to the first major conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire on Scarif.
It’s all catalyzed by Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael, who proves to be the Rebel agent who first uncovers evidence of the Death Star.These final three episodes follow what happens next, as Luthen sacrifices himself (with a little assistance from Elizabeth Dulau’s Kleya Marki) and Cassian and friends make a high-stakes trip to Coruscant to bring Kleya in.
It’s a mission that would surely have ended in torture and death for all involved if not for the assistance of Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO.
Rogue One emphasized the idea that the Rebellion’s victory at the Battle of Yavin was a miracle that was accomplished through many individual acts of heroism.
At any point in the chain, something could have gone wrong that doomed the Rebellion to failure.
Now we have a better appreciation for how far back that chain extends.
If not for Luthen and Kleya’s bravery, the Rebels would have no idea of the danger looming over them.
Hope persists in the darkest of times.The series ends with the Alliance High Command finally accepting the reality of what Cassian and Kleya are telling them.
The Empire is building a super-weapon.
They don’t yet know that it’s one with the power to destroy entire planets, but they do know it’s connected to the Empire’s supposed energy program, its kyber mining efforts on Jedha, and its actions on Ghorman.
The pieces are falling into place, leaving Cassian free to meet his contact Tivik on the Ring of Kafrene.
That encounter unfolds in one of the first scenes in Rogue One, where Cassian learns the full truth about the Death Star and the defection of Riz Ahmed’s Bodhi Rook.The series also shows us the fates of many of the other major players in this prequel series.
Kleya seems ready to integrate with the Rebels, joining loyal soldiers like Faye Marsay’s Vel Sartha and Muhannad Bhaier’s Wilmon Paak.
We also see one last glimpse of Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera, who watches in paranoid agitation as an Imperial Star Destroyer looms above Jedha.
On the Imperial side of things, Anton Lesser’s Major Partagaz is forced to pay the ultimate price for his failure to contain the Death Star leak, committing suicide rather than submitting to whatever other punishments the Emperor had in mind.
Meanwhile, Dedra is seen languishing in an Imperial prison cell, ironically in the same facility on Narkina 5 where Cassian was imprisoned in Season 1.“Meanwhile, Dedra is seen languishing in an Imperial prison cell, ironically in the same facility on Narkina 5 where Cassian was imprisoned in Season 1.
She’s clearly wracked by shame and guilt, contending with everything she sacrificed in the name of the Empire and the realization that none of it mattered in the end.
The series has a lot to say about the perils of living under fascism.
Dedra is proof that no amount of loyalty and sacrifice can change the fact that everyone serving the Empire is merely a pawn to be discarded when they outlive their usefulness.
“I always think of it like Dedra is in a gang,” Gough told IGN in a recent roundtable interview.
“These guys are in a tribe and Dedra is in a gang, and the gang just disperse at the first sign of trouble.
They throw each other to the wolves.
There's no loyalties.
And so it was really clear to me that going through it, that when you commit your whole life and she's indoctrinated into the gang, so she can't see anything outside it.
It's actually really tragic.
She can't have intimacy or vulnerability or anything.
And so it's a real kind of a foil to what the people in the Rebellion do have, which is loyalty, trust, love, intimacy, community, all of those things.”Episode 12 serves as a neat and tidy way to end the series, albeit somewhat bittersweet.
We know that Cassian himself has only a few days left to live before he and the rest of the Rogue One team sacrifice their lives on Scarif.
But there is one, final reveal saved for the very end.
PlayRevealing Cassian Andor’s ChildThe final scene in Episode 12 reveals that Adria Arjona’s Bix Caleen has returned to Mina-Rau to live out her days in peace.
Not only that, she’s raising a baby.
As hinted at in Episode 9, Bix was pregnant when she left Cassian on Yavin IV.
While she claimed to be leaving Cassian to ensure he would continue serving the Rebellion, it’s clear now that she also wanted to bring their unborn child somewhere he could grow up safe from the Empire.Cassian may be doomed to die fighting on Scarif, but his legacy lives on in a very tangible way.
That’s probably the happiest ending fans could hope for from this generally very somber Star Wars series.“[Showrunner Tony Gilroy] really believes that information is power,” Arjona told IGN.
“And he told me months before I read the scene where I sort of send Cassian off.
He told me that that was going to happen.
And so for months I was kind of lingering on that effect or that feeling before I ever read it.
And when I read it, it shook me.
I started crying immediately.
And I love Rogue One, and I respect that movie so much.
So to sort of send Cassian on this journey meant the world to me.”“For anyone who had doubts in [Episode] 9 about her motivation, it underlines it at the end.
Absolutely,” Gilroy adds.
“It makes his sacrifice even more powerful.
So much stronger.
I mean, you want hope at the end… It would be cruel and unnatural to put all these people through all this stuff and not have a candle in the window at the end.”Does Andor Season 2 Have a Post-Credits Scene?The Star Wars franchise isn’t as big about post-credits scenes and stingers as Marvel, but we have seen them in the past with some live-action Star Wars shows.
That includes Andor Season 1, which ended with the reveal that the Narkina 5 prisoners were manufacturing equipment being used on the Death Star.Based on that, fans might be expecting Season 2 to also end with a post-credits scene of some sort.
But not in this case.
The series is done once the final credits start rolling.
When Andor segues this neatly into the beginning of Rogue One, what’s the point of a post-credits scene? Besides, the final scene with Bix is all the series really needs in terms of setting the stage for future stories.
There’s another Andor out there in the galaxy, and no doubt they have a grand destiny ahead of them, too.
On that note…PlayHow Andor Sets Up Future Star Wars StoriesAs much as Andor serves as a direct prequel to Rogue One, the series does leave some loose ends open for future Star Wars projects to build upon.
As mentioned, key characters like Will, Kleya, and Vel are still alive and active in the Rebellion.
This leaves room for future Star Wars comics and novels to explore the ongoing role they play in the Galactic Civil War.
Did they fight in the Battle of Scarif or other major conflicts like the Battle of Endor? Did they ever rub elbows with the likes of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker? Andor is so far removed from the Jedi business that usually dominates the franchise, so it might be fascinating to read a story that explores how these ordinary heroes react to fighting alongside a living legend like Luke.It’s also worth pointing out that, though Season 2 explores the last four years of Cassian’s life, it only focuses on very specific periods within those four years.
Now that Andor has wrapped, there’s ample room for Lucasfilm to double back and commission new books that flesh out other conflicts during this era.
How did the bond between Cassian and K-2SO form? What other high-stakes missions did Cassian undertake? Lucasfilm is dabbling in this area with the recently announced Reign of the Empire trilogy, but there’s room for plenty more stories spinning out of Andor.
Then there’s poor Dedra.
As much as the series delivers a poetic ending to her story, we can’t help but wonder if there’s more story to be told.
What becomes of Dedra? Does she spend the remainder of the Galactic Civil War locked up on Narkina 5? What happens when the Empire is overthrown? How does she react to seeing her precious Empire fall? Is she freed? Is she put on trial for her role in orchestrating the Ghorman Massacre? We can’t help but feel there’s more to be explored there.No doubt the child will grow up hearing stories of Cassian’s heroism and bravery, inspiring them to follow in their father’s footsteps.“But above all, Andor leaves us to question what becomes of Bix and her child.
No doubt the child will grow up hearing stories of Cassian’s heroism and bravery, inspiring them to follow in their father’s footsteps.
Given the time period in which this series is set, there’s no way Cassian’s child could participate in the Rebel Alliance (unless they grow so desperate they start relying on child soldiers).
But they would be the right age to take part in the war between the Resistance and the First Order.
It would be a comforting thought to know that Leia’s forces have another tie to the classic Rebellion era in the form of Cassian Andor’s offspring.
One intriguing possibility is that Cassian Jr.
could wind up being a character in Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter.
We don’t know much about that film, other than that it’ll star Ryan Gosling and it’s set about five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker.
Cassian and Bix’s child would be in their 40s at that point, leaving them in a perfect position to take up arms in whatever conflict exists after the fall of Palpatine’s Final Order.Regardless of where and when it happens, we have to assume it’s only a matter of time before Cassian and Bix’s child makes their presence known in the Star Wars franchise.
Cassian himself may be gone, but his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
The Rebellion survives, and so does his family.
That’s everything Cassian was fighting for.For more on Andor, find out how the series created a major Star Wars plot hole (and why that doesn't matter), and see the cast react to Episode 9’s shocking death.Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN.
Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket byfollowing @jschedeen on BlueSky.
Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/andor-season-2-ending-explained-rogue-one-star-wars-prequel">https://www.ign.com/articles/andor-season-2-ending-explained-rogue-one-star-wars-prequel">https://www.ign.com/articles/andor-season-2-ending-explained-rogue-one-star-wars-prequel
#andor #season #ending #explained #why #the #series #more #than #just #rogue #one #prequel