The spring housing market is shaping as much as be the leanest and best ever.

A pointy drop in new listings partly attributable to extreme climate, mixed with already record-low provide, will make it more and more tough for consumers to search out their dream house on the excellent worth.

There have been practically half as many houses on the market on the finish of February, in contrast with a yr earlier, in keeping with a brand new calculation by realtor.com. Low provide was exacerbated by a drop within the variety of new listings to return in the marketplace.

“Final month’s file chilly and snowstorms seemingly brought about sellers to hit pause, even when solely quickly,” mentioned Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com. “Nonetheless, in at the moment’s inventory-starved market, any setback is critical.”

A pullback by sellers resulted in roughly 207,000 fewer houses newly listed on the market within the first two months of 2021 in contrast with…