For now, first-time home buyers have mostly found themselves in a sellers market, faced with above-average price appreciation and bidding wars due to limited inventories of homes for sale.
But in the second half of the year, the market is expected to shift toward more of a balance as more sellers – motivated by higher home prices – put their homes on the market, alleviating the inventory shortage. This will help provide buyers with more choices of homes to buy as well as likely soften the speed at which home prices are rising.