More in positive- equity territory

group’s announcement that existing- home sales fell in August for the second straight month to the second- lowest level of the year.

Besides leaving fewer homes on the market for buyers, the crunch discourages sales by pushing up prices. The median existing home price was $ 240,200 in August, up 5.1% the past 12 months, the Realtors group said.

Unlike NAR, Trulia includes newly- built homes in its inventory totals. They represent just 10% of supplies but increased construction is likely helping to beef up skimpy selections in cer- tain markets, McLaughlin says.

Yet McLaughlin mostly attributed the rising inventories in some areas to an increase in existing homes. Investors who scooped up units on the cheap after the real estate crash are putting them up for sale in greater numbers, he says.

Also, price gains are providing positive equity to homeowners who had owed more than their homes were worth after the crash. That’s coaxing many to sell. In the second quarter, 11.9% of homeowners nationwide were “seriously underwater,” down from 13.3% a year ago and 29% in 2012, according to RealtyTrac.

Housing inventories in the San Francisco area are up 19.3% compared with a year ago, Trulia figures show. Largely as a result, the region’s home prices in June were up 6.4% annually, down from 11.1% in November.

The area has seen a flurry of new condo construction recently as well as an increase in existing home supplies, says real estate agent Gabrielle Bunker of Coldwell Banker. She’s seeing fewer multiple offers for homes and far fewer buyers bidding more than market price.

While the market is still competitive, she says, “People do have an easier time buying homes.”