Homebuyers were left with few choices at the start of the year as Montgomery County had just around 15 days’ worth of housing supply in January, writes Michaelle Bond for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Such inadequate supply combined with the rising demand has continued to fuel buyer competition and push prices in the area further up.

The monthly supply of inventory has been going down in Montgomery County for years.

In January 2013, the county had a 5.6-month supply of inventory.

That number went down to 5.1 in January 2015 and to 1.7 in January 2020. Last month, it has reached 0.5 months.

Around six months of inventory supply is considered a balanced market.

Meanwhile, there were only 666 new listings in January 2022, which is a decrease of 18.5 percent compared to January 2021 and 28.9 percent compared to January 2020.

The number of pending sales, which was at 696 in January, was also down compared to the two previous years, by 18.6 percent in January 2021 and 12.9 percent in January 2020.

Read more about the housing supply in The Philadelphia Inquirer.