Across the nation this week, buyers and sellers alike experienced the biggest return to normalcy in the housing market in the time of Covid-19.

When it comes to the Fresno market, inventory is still the biggest obstacle.

Realtor.com created a recovery index to track how the market is faring by averaging online search traffic, median list prices, new listings and median time on market — all compared to January.

Nationally, the home listing website scored the country a 92 on its index, with a positive week-over-week change of two points — the largest jump in four weeks. Any score above 100 means the market was stronger than it was in January.

The time homes spend on the market was the fastest improving data point, increasing 5.3% since last week, meaning homes were selling faster. It is still worse than the baseline at 13 days slower than last year, according to a Realtor.com press release. Inventory has also increased, up 1.2 points on the index week-over-week, but it still has a long way to go. New listings are down 19% year-over-year and total listings are down 29%.

Time on market and total inventory have been the biggest data points to drag down the average on the index.

The demand for housing as well as home prices are stronger than they were in January, scoring 120.7 and 101.9 on the index, respectively. Median listing prices have grown 5.6% compared to 2019, more than a percentage point above pre-COVID pace.

Ten metros have actually surpassed their markets in January. Seattle; Denver; Boston; Jacksonville, Florida; Philadelphia; Los Angeles; Las Vegas; San Francisco; San Diego and Miami housing markets are all in better shape than they were in January. Metro areas with a strong tech sector saw the biggest increases, according to a representative with Realtor.com. Fresno was not ranked in the recovery index.

Year-over-year in Fresno, however, the biggest challenge has been in the number of active listings. Total homes available for sale is down 48.7% compared to the same week in 2019. Median listing price has increased 1.6% and average time homes spend on the market has decreased by two days. The count of new listings of homes on the market has decreased 32.3%.