This is Motleyful Answers. I'm Alison Southwick and I'm joined as always by Robert Go

Broke or Go Home Camp. Personal finance expert here at the Motley Fool. Hey, bro.

Hey, Alison. I can hear the enthusiasm all the way, all the way here in 20 miles away from you. Well, this week,

we're joined by Diana Mariam. She's the founder of the Economy Conference and the host of the

Optimal Finance Daily podcast. She's going to share with us six myths of the fire movement. All

that and more on this week's episode of Follyful Answers. So, Allison, what's up? How's that? Is that more

enthusiasm for you? That was. Thank you. And it felt really earnest. I appreciate that.

Very genuine. Bro, houses are the new toilet paper. Low inventory and high demand is creating

a buying frenzy across the country. How bad is it? Well, let's explore.

America has a record low number of homes available for sale, just over one million compared to a

peak of more than four million at the height of the last housing bubble in July of 2007.

According to Redfin, half of all homes are selling for above

asking price. And in their annual survey of nearly 2,000 home buyers, 63% reported having bid on

a home they hadn't seen in person.

Yikes.

Yeah. Yikes. If there's that much demand for so few houses, how much is that

driving up prices? Well, the National Association of Realtors says the median sales price for

existing homes rose by 19% year over year in April to 341,600,000. But, of course, depending

on where you live, it can be much more expensive.

In Austin, Texas, a perennial favorite on all of the hottest places to live lists,

the median listing price has risen 40% in one year to $520,000.

So who's to blame?

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