Real estate agent Sean Dycus says one of his clients, a 67-year-old postal worker, is looking this spring to buy her very first home after renting her entire life. But the market is unrelenting.

“She’s …offering almost her entire nest egg of cash and she’s still looking at $2,200 a month for a $350,000 home,” the real estate agent at Mainstreet Properties in Charleston, S.C., told Yahoo Finance.

“We’ve been going back and forth for weeks with different builders and sellers trying to get her something nice,” he said, “something she likes.”

She’s probably not the only buyer struggling to purchase a home this spring.

After a winter of sellers offering price discounts and other incentives, buyers are now finding far fewer options and little room to negotiate, as inventory levels have yet to improve — despite somewhat softer mortgage rates.

As of April 17, there were only 66,000 new listings of single-family homes nationwide and 25% are already under contract, according to Altos Research. That’s far fewer than last year, when there were 100,000 new listings and 30% of them were under contract immediately.

That means buyers again are facing a frustrating housing market.

“So yes, demand is lighter than the insanity of last year. But the quantity demanded exceeds the quantity supplied,” Mike Simonsen, CEO of Altos Research wrote in a blog post. “There are plenty of buyers competing for the limited supply of homes on the market.”

Fewer homeowners listed this spring

While it may seem like a seller’s market, a growing share of homeowners are deciding against listing their house for sale — adding to inventory woes for buyers.

The number of single-family homes on the market across the country fell again the week of April 17 to 405,000, Altos Research found. While that’s 57% more than last year at this time, inventory continues to dwindle by the week.

“Inventory usually climbs for 20 weeks from mid-February through June 30. We’re halfway through the seasonal cycle and yet inventory is still falling,” Simonsen wrote.