It was just a few weeks ago that real estate pros were predicting a robust springtime home sales market. Buyers, including first-timers, hoped prices would slip and that they’d finally gain a degree of leverage with sellers. But the situation is not quite as buyers hoped.

Granted, prices have cooled in some formerly overheated markets, such as Austin and San Jose. But in many high-demand markets, buyers have actually lost sway due to a severe shortage of inventory.

“We’ve gone from hot to not,” says Jeff Tucker, a senior economist for Zillow, the national real estate company. As he notes, buyers are scooping up what they can find, but a lack of choices is holding them back.

“Unfortunately, many potential sellers have ghosted the market this spring, concentrating buyer demand in the few listings that do come on the market and fueling price growth, especially for more affordable and well-priced houses,” Tucker says.

Lindsay Katz, a Los Angeles-based agent for Redfin, the national realty brokerage, says, “The total number of homes for sale has declined over the last month, going against the typical spring inventory bump.”

There are several underlying reasons why available homes are so scarce. One long-term factor is that many baby boomers are clinging to their properties rather than downsizing.

“Whether it’s real or delusional, lots of folks in their 60s and 70s expect to stay put in their properties forever,” says Mark Nash, the author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home.”

Another factor causing homeowners to hang on rather than sell is that they wish to keep the low-rate mortgages they acquired during the pandemic. If they were to buy anew, their new mortgage would carry a much higher rate.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (nar.realtor), blames higher mortgage costs on the Federal Reserve, which has steadily lifted interest rates in hopes of calming inflation.

Yun claims that the Fed’s latest rate hike, on May 3, was unnecessary and is repressing housing sales.

“We have to stop the bleeding before improvement takes place. We need to get more inventory, and the long-term solution is more home building,” he says.

Though affordability is still a monumental challenge for would-be homeowners, they’re not backing off. Rather, they’re pushing ahead in hopes of finding that rare and well-priced property.

Here are a few pointers for buyers:

-- Acknowledge that not all sellers are equally motivated.

Tom Early, a former president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org), says that although the overall economy is faring well, financial duress is still a common reason why many homeowners decide to sell their property.

Nash, a veteran real estate broker, advises buyers to determine as much as possible about the sellers’ situation before making an offer.

“More than 90% of the motivation for a deal comes from the sellers’ circumstances and has nothing to do with the buyer,” he says.

-- Request help from your agent on “due diligence.”

“Before making an offer on any property at any time, you’ll want to learn as much as possible about the sellers’ equity position,” Nash says.

He suggests that would-be purchasers ask their agent to research public records to determine when the present owners bought their house, what they paid and how big a mortgage they took out. Much of this information is freely available on the internet.

If they bought long before the big housing crash of 2008, the odds are good they still have substantial equity -- unless they gutted most of that with a big home-equity loan or a cash-out refinance.

“Sellers with lots of equity have much more latitude for bargaining. They can cut you a reasonable deal and still move away with a check in their pocket,” Early says.

-- Learn what you can from the seller’s listing agent.

Listing agents are sometimes surprisingly candid in responding to questions about their clients’ situations.

“If the owners are under extreme pressure to sell, the listing agent may even tell your agent their true bottom-line price to let the house go,” Early says.

But what if you find out the sellers are not under duress to sell quickly? That, too, can be useful in setting the pace for your negotiations.

“I remember when one of my clients tried to buy a family home from a retired couple who wanted to move to their vacation place. Because the sellers owned the house free and clear, they could afford to wait. So we paced our negotiations with their timing in mind,” Early recalls.

-- Don’t scratch stale properties off your list.

Have you fallen in love with a place that went on the market months ago at a bloated price? Are you confident the sellers must move soon and will eventually have to take a price cut to get their place sold?

If so, Early urges you to prepare to submit an immediate bid on the property as soon as its owners face reality and take their reduction. Make sure you have a preapproval letter from a reputable lender showing you have the income and good credit to go through with the deal.

“Sellers who’ve just sobered up and finally cut their price to a realistic level will sometimes succumb to a substantial reduction. It’s at that moment that you should pounce quickly with your fair offer,” Early says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A hairstylist and his federal contractor wife -- both in their 30s -- lucked out when they bought their small Spanish-style house in January 2020. That was before the pandemic-fueled housing market frenzy pushed up prices. They’ve already amassed substantial equity in the place.

Now, the couple craves larger quarters. But they’re reluctant to trade up to a different house, given that they have a very low-rate mortgage, and a new first mortgage would undoubtedly cost them more in monthly interest charges.

“We’d be fools to trade our sweet 2.5% mortgage for one that would likely be over 6%,” the stylist says.

This couple is now exploring an alternative. They’re now working with an architect to design an addition that would add about 600 square feet to their current property.

“We love to have parties, and it would be great having an ‘indoor-outdoor’ room where we could host friends for brunches and barbecues. Our backyard is large and flat so this would be a relatively straightforward addition,” the stylist says.

The couple has already ruled out tapping equity for the renovation through the classic refinance of their first mortgage, which has more than $300,000 still outstanding. Instead, they’re pondering a home equity line of credit (HELOC), a type of second mortgage that works like a revolving credit line and is secured by a property.

“Of course, the interest rate on a HELOC would be higher than on a plain vanilla refi. But our loan amount would be far smaller. We only need about $30,000 for the addition,” the stylist says.

Demand for HELOC is very gradually building among millennial homeowners, according to Marc Zitelman, a mortgage broker who has worked in the lending field since 2002. He says many young adults, including those with growing families, would like to tap their equity but are reluctant to face the interest rate penalties associated with moving.

“Owners don’t want to disturb that low-rate primary mortgage they have,” he says.

Here are a few pointers for HELOC borrowers:

-- Research the HELOC market.

“It’s best to think through what you want before you shop around for the best type of home loan for your needs,” says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates, which tracks mortgage markets throughout the United States.

As a first step, buyers can inform themselves through online resources. For instance, Gumbinger suggests that mortgage shoppers seek home loan information through his firm’s website: hsh.com.

-- Don’t settle for a lender offering shoddy service.

Gerri Detweiler, a consumer finance blogger and author of “The Ultimate Credit Handbook,” encourages first-time buyers to seek a lender who will instruct them on the complexities of all types of home loans.

“In just 30 to 60 minutes spent with a friendly lender, you can learn a lot about the fundamentals and maybe even get help to identify and fix flaws on your credit reports,” Detweiler says.

How do you find an empathic lender?

Gumbinger says real estate agents are often a good source for names. But he advises you to look beyond their suggestions.

“If you reach out in your neighborhood, you’ll probably find someone down the street who’s bought a house or refinanced lately. You can also canvass friends and family,” he says.

-- Arrive at your lender’s office prepared.

To save time, there’s no substitute for gathering key documents in advance of your meeting. Ideally, these should include recent pay stubs, your latest W-2s and a couple of years’ worth of federal tax returns, as well as bank and savings account statements.

Gumbinger says an in-person tutorial will help you clarify the whole lending situation and bring it into sharper focus.

What if the lender you contact resists your request for a tutorial? In that case, he says you should move on to another lender.

“You deserve to have all your questions answered in plain English,” Gumbinger says.

-- Look into your credit standing to get the best available mortgage rate.

Under federal law, you're entitled to one free credit report every 12 months from the three largest credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can easily request these online (annualcreditreport.com).

In addition to your credit reports you'll want to access your "credit scores." Such scores, which draw on data from the credit bureaus, seek to provide lenders with a quantitative measure of credit risk. Most lenders still use FICO scores, pioneered by the Fair Isaac Corp.

You may not need to pay a fee to obtain your credit scores because some banks and credit unions are now offering them free of charge. Another way is to buy them through the Fair Isaac website (myfico.com). In addition, you can also obtain them directly through the three large credit bureaus. FICO scores range from 300 to 850, and the higher the score, the greater your odds of getting the best available rate.

As Gumbinger says, you may want to begin the rate-shopping process with the lender who tutored you on the basics. But he urges you to extend your search beyond the first lender.

“The more the merrier when it comes to rate quotes. But always remember you’re looking for competent service along with low rates,” Gumbinger says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A young couple who’d struggled with fertility issues bought a small suburban bungalow in 2020 soon after the pandemic hit. The little gray house was the perfect size for the teacher and her husband, an IT specialist.

But the COVID-19 period brought many surprises --including the birth of the couple’s two sons. Soon the family felt squeezed in their 1,700-square-foot place. Now they desperately wish to upsize to a much larger space with at least one home office and a playroom for the boys.

“If we’d had any idea how fast our family would grow, we never would have picked this little ‘mouse house,’ as we call it. Yet right now, we’re packed like sardines, and it feels intolerable,” says the teacher.

Though the couple are more than ready to upsize to a bigger place, they face two financial barriers. One is that mortgage rates are much higher now than when they bought their bungalow. The other is that property values in their area of choice remain stubbornly high.

“We’re constantly crunching the numbers. But the bottom line is that we need a genuinely great deal to make our trade-up dreams come true,” the teacher says.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (nar.realtor) understands the affordability frustrations facing many such young families. As he explains, one root cause is that available homes are still in short supply.

“The lack of inventory is a major constraint to rising sales. Multiple offers are still occurring on about a third of all listings and 28% of homes are selling above list price,” Yun says.

Still, he’s optimistic that conditions will soon improve for growing families like the teacher and her husband.

“Sales in the second half of the year should be notably better than the first half as job gains continue and more favorable mortgage rates are expected,” Yun says.

Another reason for optimism among wannabe move-up buyers is that a gradually increasing number of empty nesters are now selling their large family properties.

“We’re heading into a major demographic shift in housing that will eventually mean that huge numbers of older people will either downsize to smaller homes or move to retirement communities,” says Fred Meyer, an independent real estate appraiser and broker who sells properties around Harvard University.

In fact, Zillow, the Seattle-based firm that tracks housing markets throughout the country, is predicting a “silver tsunami” as more baby boomers put their properties on the market.

In desirable neighborhoods, the generational transition will come as a welcome relief to young purchasers hoping to enlarge their living quarters.

Here are a few pointers for those seeking bigger housing:

-- Seek out highly motivated sellers.

The owners of upscale homes are no different from any other category of sellers: Some are a lot more driven to let go than are others, says Dorcas Helfant, the co-owner of several Coldwell Banker realty offices.

Some owners have no particular timeline pushing them out the door. Such “discretionary sellers” would like to liquidate but are willing to delay their plans in hopes of obtaining a better price later.

Conversely, motivated sellers have well-defined reasons for moving. Besides financial and health issues, there are positive reasons why some empty nesters seek to sell quickly. For example, the birth of a first grandchild can intensify their desire to move promptly to a neighborhood near the home of their grown children.

As a move-up buyer, why should you care if the owners of a home you like are in a rush to sell? Because hurried sellers are much more likely to negotiate in earnest.

If you question sellers on their reasons for moving, many will give you -- or your agent -- candid answers to polite inquiries.

Helfant says it’s usually pointless trying to negotiate with sellers who convey a couldn’t-care-less attitude about their timing. You’re much more likely to strike a favorable deal with people who are eager to move.

-- Don’t rule out listings that have gone stale.

On occasion, genuinely motivated sellers hold out longer than they should, only reducing their overly high list price after becoming desperate.

Their problem is that homes that linger too long on the market become stigmatized.

“It can take a while for some otherwise motivated homeowners to realize they’ve been asking way too much. But if you’re willing to wait, you might be rewarded for your patience,” Helfant says.

-- Consider communities where inventory is increasing.

Despite the likelihood of greater availability of property due to more boomer sales, there are still many tight markets where sellers continue to rule. As would-be trade-up buyers, you could do well to prioritize areas where For Sale properties are more abundant.

“You’ll do better if there’s a great deal of inventory -- which translates to more competition for the sellers,” Helfant says.

-- Keep the focus on your ultimate goal.

“Remember when you trade up, you’re buying for lifestyle. You’re looking for that perfect location, that perfect view or that perfect refuge from the world where you can find peace. For that reason, there are factors more important than price and square footage. That’s why it’s critical to set your priorities carefully,” Helfant says. (To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)