Jonathan J Miller, Columnist

Want a New House? Good Luck

The decline in the inventory of homes for sale isn't a good sign for the housing market.

Growing scarce.

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
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Much of the analysis of the housing market focuses on sales volume and price trends. These are important metrics, of course, but they really don't tell you much about market fundamentals because they are, to a great extent, derivative.

To better understand the health of the market, we need to turn to Econ 101 and look at supply and demand.