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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings beyond seasonality could suggest a market that is heating up. Since the national pandemic housing boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country, that shift has varied. Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 36 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced, relatively speaking, more resilient home price growth over the past 42 months. Where is national active inventory headed? National active listings are on the rise on a year-over-year basis (+10% between January 31, 2025, and January 31, 2026). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some seller’s markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyer’s markets. Nationally, were still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-17.8% below January 2019), and some resale markets (in particular, chunks of the Midwest and Northeast) still remain, relatively speaking, tight-ish. While national active inventory is still up year over year, the pace of growth has slowed in recent months as softening has slowed. Here are the January inventory/active listings totals, according to Realtor.com: January 2017 -> 1,154,120 January 2018 -> 1,043,951 January 2019 -> 1,110,636 January 2020 -> 951,675 January 2021 -> 531,775 (Pandemic housing boom overheating) January 2022 -> 376,970 (Pandemic housing boom overheating) January 2023 -> 616,865 January 2024 -> 665,569 January 2025 -> 829,376 January 2026 -> 912,696 If we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+83,320 homes for sale), we’d have 996,016 active inventory come January 2027. (Note: Thats not a predictionIm just showing what the math looks like if that pace continued.) Below is the year-over-year active inventory percentage change by state. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, the pace of growth continues to decelerate across much of the country. LEFT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between January 2024 and January 2025 RIGHT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between January 2025 and January 2026 And while active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish (although it’s loosening in those places, too). As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. Thats where home sellers in the spring are likely, relatively speaking, to have more power than their peers in many Southern markets. In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro-area housing markets such as Austin and Punta Gorda, Florida. Many of these areas saw major price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home prices getting stretched when compared with local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices. This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market: Some buyers, who would have previously considerd existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable dealswhich then puts some additional upward pressure on resale inventory. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); At the end of January 2026, nine states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbiawhich we left out of this table belowis also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels. Softness in D.C. proper predates the current admins job cuts.) window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Big picture: Over the past few years, weve observed a softening across many housing markets as strained affordability tempers the fervor of a market that was unsustainably hot during the pandemic housing boom. While home prices are falling some in pockets of the Sun Belt, a big chunk of Northeast and Midwest markets still eked out a little price appreciation in 2025. Year over year, nationally aggregated home prices were pretty close to flat. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Below is another version of the table abovebut this one includes every month since January 2017. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); If youd like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below. Over the coming months, lets keep an eye on Florida, which has now entered its seasonal window when its active inventory typically begins to rise again. (To better understand softness and weakness across Florida over the past couple years, read this ResiClub PRO report.) window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});
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E-Commerce
At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the iconic cauldron of the Games is putting on a daily show just like its athletes. This year, for the first time ever, there are two cauldrons lit simultaneously at different locations. Inspired by Leonardo da Vincis geometric drawings, both cauldrons expand and contract, respond to music, and emit their own lightand one will put on hourly performances for viewers throughout the Games. The tradition of the Olympic flame and cauldron dates back 100 years or more. Historically, the Games are opened with a relay ceremony wherein torch bearers bring the flame to the cauldron, which remains lit until the closing ceremony. And while the cauldrons design remained relatively consistent for the first decades of the Olympics, in recent years it has become a major design moment. This years approach is an encapsulation of the cauldrons transition from a static object to a show in itself. Spectators gather at Milans Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) to catch a sneak peek of one of the 2026 Olympic cauldrons on January 30. [Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images] In the last editions of the games, more and more of the main focus has been on who is going to light the cauldron, its design, and what it means, says Marco Balich, the creative lead for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony who designed this years cauldrons. To make a long story short, I think over the years you see the history of the cauldron goes from very simple ones to [beautiful statements]. A brief history of Olympic cauldron design While symbolic fire at the Olympics traces back to at least 1928, the first Olympic torch relay took place in Berlin in 1936. The cauldron that year was a small, bowl-like vessel standing on three legs on a podium. In subsequent Games, like 1948 London, 1952 Helsinki, and 1960 Rome, the cauldron format remained largely the same. The Olympic Cauldron of the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin survived World War II undamaged; photographed at Berlin Olympic Stadium in 2005. [Photo: Nick Potts/PA/Getty Images] Starting around 1968, designers began to take a bit more creative liberty with the cauldron. That years Mexico City Games featured a cauldron made by a womana firstshaped like a giant circular chalice. Since then, the cauldron has continuously evolved in shape and scope, from a 6.4-meter-high scroll-shaped one for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to a multi-shard monument for the 2010 Vancouver Games and a petal-inspired chorus of flames for the London Games in 2012. The Olympic flame burns above Mexico Citys University Olympic Stadium on opening day of track and field competition at the 1968 Summer Games. [Photo: UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images] According to Balich, who holds a record 16 event credits for Olympic ceremonies, recent years have seen the cauldron transform from a stationary symbol into a kind of high-stakes performance art. Balich coordinated the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games that featured a kinetic sun sculpture by artist Anthony Howe; powered by the wind, its tentacles fluttered and reflected the light of the cauldrons flame to spectacular effect. Mariene de Castro performs in front of the Olympic cauldron during the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics at Maracaa Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. [Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images] And in Paris 2024, designer Mathieu Lehanneur abandoned almost all of the cauldrons recognizable design tradition in favor of a literal hot-air balloon, which took flight daily during the Games for a ticketed audience and remained in Pariss Tuileries Garden for nightly performances after the Olympics concluded. Balich says that expansion of the cauldrons role during the Games and beyond inspired this years design. I was very inspired because it confirmed to me that the experience of this object is so relevant, that it was worth it to add this dynamic session that wuld enlarge the experience and be even more emotionally touching, especially for the younger generation, he says. [Rendering: Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026] A new cauldron experience This year, Balich iterated on the idea of the cauldron as an experience by turning it into an hourly show complete with lights, music, and movement. His concept started with two cauldronsone in Milan and one in Cortinato represent harmony between man and nature. The designs are inspired by a series of geometrical drawings by Da Vinci (who lived in Milan for several years), which used mathematics to imagine various intricate three-dimensional shapes. Balich says he did a quick drawing of his original concept, then called on creative director Lida Castelli and set designer Paolo Fantin to develop the final products. [Rendering: Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026] The cauldrons themselves are constructed out of aeronautical aluminum, with a whopping 1,440 components making up their intricate structure. A total of 244 pivot points allows them to smoothly expand and contract from a minimum diameter of 3.1 meters to a maximum of 4.5 meters. LED lights along the surface of these components give the cauldrons an otherworldly glow, while the actual Olympic flame is enclosed inside a glass-and-metal container at their centers. The final product looks like something you might expect to see descending from the heavensor a much less foreboding Eye of Sauron. [Photo: Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images] One cauldron is suspended in Milans Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace), where it will put on a three-to-five-minute show every hour during the Games from 5 to 11 p.m., accompanied by music from Italian composer Roberto Cacciapaglia. The second sits on a podium in Cortina dAmpezzos Piazza Angelo Dibona. And, just as they were lit simultaneously, theyll be extinguished simultaneously when the Games close. I hope that everybody will gatherfamilies, friends, curious design lovers, design criticsto go there and be immersed in this music and this beautiful show around the arch, Balich says. My goal for that is to add an experience to watching the sacred fire from Olympia, which in a way is one of the most powerful symbols around the world of peace, fraternity, sports, and the values that the Games represent.
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E-Commerce
The notion of instant on-the-go translation is nothing new for most of us, thanks to the now-ubiquitous Google Translate service. But a scrappy Google competitor thinks it can do better. This month, a company called Kagi is officially launching its Kagi Translate app for both Android and iOS. The app mirrors most of the same features Google Translate offers, with a few interesting new touches and one key point of distinction: It is all about protecting your privacywith no ads, no trackers, and no data being monetized or repurposed in any way. Ohand its free, too. Youll need all of two minutes to take it out for a test-drive. Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures! Instant translationsplus privacy Once you’ve got the Kagi Translate app on your device, it’s really quite intuitive to use. At its core: You can type or paste any text into its main translation box to have the text translated from and to any language you like. You can tap the camera icon in that same box to take a photo of text in the real worldon a document, a menu, a whiteboard, you name itand then have the language auto-detected and translated into your native tongue from there. A document icon in that same area lets you upload a file from your phone (or any connected cloud storage) for speedy on-the-fly translation. And a microphone icon lets you speak aloudor have someone else speak aloudfor real-time translations of the words as theyre uttered. Kagi Translate’s main screen is one simple promptwith plenty of power around it. Beyond that, Kagi Translate offers some interesting extrasfor instance: If you tap the three-line settings icon within the main translation box, you can change between a natural and literal translation style, a formal or informal voice (for languages where thats relevant), and also any available gender preference (again, where relevant for a dialect). In that same area, you can also add your own custom context to help guide the translationtelling the app, in your own words, what type of conversation youre having, and with whom, so it can adjust its approach accordingly. Poke around, and you’ll find all sorts of ways to customize and control your translation output. In the apps bottom-of-screen Dictionary tab, you can simply get an on-demand, instantly translated definition of a word or phrase in another language. The apps Proofread tab will review any text you type or paste into it and offer suggestions to make it work better in your chosen language. And with any translation the app provides you, you have the ability to play the text out loud or copy it onto your system clipboardas well as request alternate translations for different ways to say the same basic thing. Kagi Translate can give you different ways to say the same thing, if you aren’t entirely thrilled with its initial translation. Again, though: Its Kagis commitment to privacy that really sets this app apart. You dont have to sign in or create an account to use it, and nothing you do or say within the app is ever shared or used for any type of ad targeting. If that sounds familiar, it should: Ive written about Kagi and its similarly privacy-centric approach to regular ol search before, and that same mindset applies to pretty much everything else the company has offeredincluding, too, the excellent Android summarizing app I mentioned in these same quarters a few months ago. Kagi makes its money entirely from user subscriptions, which are required for its core search service but not for the assorted stand-alone apps like Translate and Summarize. Whether youre using Kagi for any other purposes or not, though, this new tool is an interesting option to keep around and a welcome alternative to Google’s de facto defaultand maybe, just maybe, its exactly the je ne sais quoi youve been waiting for. Kagi Translate is available for both Android and iOS. There’s also a web version for desktop computer access. The app is completely free to use, though a paid Kagi membership will allow you to access some additional options. The app doesn&8217;t have any ads or trackers and doesn’t require any sort of sign-inand even if you do opt to create an account, Kagi’s core promise is that it never shares any of your data with anyone, in any way, or uses it for any profitable purposes. Treat yourself to all sorts of experience-enhancing treasures like this with my free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in delightful ways.
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E-Commerce
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