As if that wasn't enough to get homebuyers' hearts racing, many are finding few new listings on the market, and the few homes for sale are surrounded by desperate buyers despite the high rates.

"Limited inventory levels [have] led to intense competition for new listings, increasing the budgetary pressures facing potential homeowners," according to a recent analysis of housing data for the week ending May 27 by Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com®. Sound familiar?

Here's our column "How was the housing market this week?" with an analysis of what the latest real estate statistics mean for buyers and sellers.

Compared to last year, new listings have been on a downward trend for 47 weeks.

For the week ending May 27, the number of new listings was down 20 percent compared to the same period last year, creating what Hale calls a "drag on home sales.

Anyone staring at recent mortgage rates will understand why sellers are staying put.

"Existing homeowners benefiting from mortgage rates much lower than current rates are reluctant to list their properties, causing new listings to lag," Hale explained.

While the level of new listings has dropped sharply, the overall housing inventory (which also includes stale listings languishing on the market) was up 18 percent for the week ending May 27 compared to last year.

Homebuyers who are eager to take a second look at these older listings may be getting a deal, although it may not be the ideal dream home they were hoping for.

The national median home price rose to $441,000 in May, up from $430,000 in April. But the silver lining in this data is that prices seem to be finally leveling off.

Home prices tend to peak in June and then begin to fall during the holidays. In addition, the median listing price for the week ending May 27 was up just 0.8 percent compared to last year.

"Home price growth was up slightly this week, but it's still at a crawl," Hale said.

That said, these national numbers hide huge differences, depending on where you live. If you call the South or the Western U.S. home, you may see a very low single-digit increase in the median listing price of a home from a year ago. Those looking to settle in the Northeast, however, will find that the median listing price has increased by double digits over the same period.

Median home prices are rising in the Northeast because many markets there are relatively affordable.

"The affordable housing market remains in high demand, and prices have seen significant increases as buyers flock to areas that still offer realistic homeownership opportunities," Hale said.

In May, homes stayed on the market for a median of 43 days. In the week ending May 27, listings spent 13 more days on the market compared to the same week last year.

For the 45 weeks since, homes have taken longer to sell compared to the same week a year ago, with a gap of more than two weeks since January.

Nonetheless, the May data show that homes are being snapped up faster than the average May from 2017 to 2019.

So while the red-hot market sparked by record-low mortgage rates has cooled, "homes are still selling faster than the norm before the frenzy, underscoring the ongoing supply-demand imbalance," Hale said.

Where are homebuyers hiding their bargains?

Mortgage rates don't seem poised to plummet anytime soon. And high home prices mean homebuyers will shell out more for their mortgages, an average of $280 more a month if they make a 20 percent down payment.

With high home prices and fewer listings, how can homebuyers escape the sluggish market and snag a home? Hale said the solution for many may come in the form of a newly built home.

"The fact that new home prices have fallen makes them more attractive because affordability is still important to constrained buyers, which has led to an uptick in new home sales," Hale said.