TIME

Why aren’t there any houses to buy?

Mortgage rates are rising, and the housing market appears to be softening nationwide. But in many U.S. markets, would-be buyers are facing a big problem: there’s just nothing to buy. Housing inventory—the number of homes on the market—has been falling since the rebound from the Great Recession, as investors snapped up homes and more older Americans decided to age in place.

Some housing analysts predicted that inventory would start to climb as

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