Why Home Prices Have Nowhere to Go But Up

Low supply is keeping sales down despite higher rates and builders are in no rush to boost production

There are a lot of people who would like to buy a house, and plenty of them can afford to. Finding a house to buy? That is another issue.

Home sales have been less than brisk this year. On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors reported that 5.43 million existing, or previously owned, homes were sold in May, at a seasonally adjusted, annual rate, compared with 5.6 million a year earlier. Year to date, sales are running 2% below last year’s pace. That is a somewhat surprising development considering the strong jobs...