As the Valley’s housing market continues to heat up, inventory is dropping, prices are rising and homes are selling faster than they were a year ago.

The Phoenix area experienced the nation’s sharpest drop in housing inventory during February compared with a year earlier, according to data released by Realtor.com that also reveals tightening housing markets and higher prices across the country.

The Valley’s February inventory was 42.7% below that of February 2019, and the median price was up 14.3% to $400,000, according to the report.

Those numbers come as homes are selling faster in the Phoenix metro compared to a year ago, according to the report. The median time on the market for a Valley home was 48 days, four days shorter than a year earlier. Only 10 metro areas out of the 50 on the list had quicker median times.

The Phoenix-area’s inventory decline was significantly higher than most markets on Realtor.com’s list. San Diego-Carlsbad, the market with the next-largest inventory drop, saw a reduction of 36.6%.

Still, half the nation’s 50 largest cities saw the number of homes for sale decline more than 20% year-over-year, according to Realtor.com.

The metro Phoenix housing market has been building for some time. In January, a Zillow study found it reached a total value of $488 billion in 2019 — which was a 6.6%, or $30 billion, gain over 2018.

Click here to read the full report.