During the month of July, homeowners mostly chose to wait and see what happens through the tough market conditions rather than list their properties for sale. According to the latest monthly data from Realtor.com®, that means homebuyers have even fewer options - the number of homes nationwide is down by 40,000.

"Sellers are still on the sidelines, locked in by lower interest rates and with low expectations that rates will increase significantly over the next year," Danielle Hale, Realtor.com's chief economist, noted in her report.

All of this has left the real estate market in a quandary, with would-be buyers and sellers watching and waiting, hoping that things will move in their favour.

For now, it appears that homeowners will just have to wait for market conditions to change.

The report shows that the number of new homes listed in July was down 20.8 per cent from the same month last year. For homebuyers, that means the total number of homes for sale, including both new listings and older homes, is down 6.4 percent from last year.

In the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S., the inventory of homes for sale is now half of what it was in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, it's safe to say that no one is happy with home prices. The list price, or what sellers are hoping to get for their homes, fell 0.9 per cent to $440,000 in July compared to the same month a year ago. The median sales price - the price agreed to in a contract - also fell, down 1.6 per cent from a year ago.

Any relief for homebuyers is welcome, but let's put it in context. This is only a small amount of relief, not a significant discount.

Homebuyers are also facing continued high mortgage rates that have lasted longer than most expected or hoped for.

Compared to last July, the cost of an 80 per cent average home loan has increased by 15.9 per cent, which equates to an extra $317 a month.

Fewer homes and higher costs have understandably led to a slower market. In July, the average home was on the market for 45 days, 12 days longer than a year ago.

For homebuyers accustomed to seeing homes fly off the market in a matter of hours, this longer pace means they have time to sit on a property for a while before deciding to pull the trigger.

However, in the grand scheme of things, homes are still staying on the market for 12 days less than they were before the outbreak, suggesting that everyone is having to get out of the market sooner rather than later compared to the past.

So as the summer wanes, buyers may be faced with a more realistic question: Should I keep trying?

Now is not the time to hold onto your home, Hale says.

"Can you find what you need from the property market? If you can, then it makes sense to keep looking," she says." Don't try to grasp macro factors. If you're always waiting for the right time, you could be waiting forever.