In theory, higher mortgage rates should help cool off the housing market by making housing slightly more expensive and effectively shrinking the universe of potential buyers.

Yes, but: In practice, home prices — like all market prices — are a tango between supply and demand. And right now, there’s hardly any supply of houses for sale.

There were just 790,000 existing single-family homes available for sale in December, the lowest level on record.

What they’re saying: “We really do see, just, astonishingly low inventory this winter,” said Jeff Tucker, a senior economist at Zillow, told Axios. “The shelves look pretty empty from the perspective of home shoppers.”