The start of the year ushered in a wave of good news about a hot stock market, higher wages and an active home sales environment. At the same time, housing prices have continued to rise, and the low inventory situation and affordability crunch has been particularly hard on first-time buyers struggling to get into the market. Nevertheless, buyer activity is easily outpacing seller activity in much of the country, culminating in relatively quick sales and low supply. Demand definitely remained strong this month. New Listings were down in the North Texas region 0.7 percent to 10,991. Pending Sales decreased 12.0 percent to 7,757. Inventory shrank 5.2 percent to 20,990 units. Prices moved higher as Median Sales Price was up 12.8 percent to $234,000. Days on Market decreased 5.9 percent to 48. Months Supply of Inventory was down 8.0 percent to 2.3 months, indicating that demand increased relative to supply. Unemployment has reached pre-recession levels, and Americans remain optimistic about finding quality employment. This matters because job growth and higher paychecks fuel home purchases. Unfortunately, that won't matter for potential buyers if price appreciation outpaces income growth and if mortgage rates continue their upward trend. Sellers are getting a generous number of offers in this market. The worry for sellers then becomes that there will not be a generous number of homes to choose from when they become buyers.