By the Numbers

The market has about 1% less inventory now than a year ago, Compass’ chief economist said. If the trend continues, buyers may see prices start to rise again.

The quirky trend can be explained in part by the flexibility of home builders as they navigate higher material costs and persistent economic uncertainty.

With mortgage rates still elevated, pending and new home sales — along with mortgage applications — have all trended down as affordability weakens.

Real estate investors are pulling back as rising homeownership costs, economic uncertainty and slowing price growth in some areas threaten to reduce profits.

Shifts in household incomes, home prices and mortgage rates will be key to housing affordability improvements in the next decade, according to Oxford Economics.

Contract signings remain sluggish compared to pre-pandemic norms, but new data suggests 2026 has shown improvement over the past few spring homebuying seasons.

Pending sales and purchase applications fell this week as average mortgage rates topped 6.5%, narrowing “the pool of buyers who can make the numbers work.”

Though construction activity in April was mixed, recent data indicates home builders are being cautious about the types of projects they’re willing to take on.

A new Listing-Income Alignment Score finds “a shortage of options” for buyers looking to purchase a home they can afford, according to NAR and Realtor.com.

The housing market may be stabilizing, but many economic factors are still in flux — and could tip home sales in a less rosy direction over the summer.

Still, most renters lack the funds for a down payment, and more buyers are turning to government-backed loans, suggesting that affordability remains a problem.

With no end in sight for the war in Iran, investors are growing increasingly nervous about how sky-high energy prices are impacting the U.S. economy.

A new Zillow analysis found that homesellers collectively lost nearly $1.5B on dual agency transactions in three years — and over $1.3B on off-MLS listings.

Rising pending sales and loan activity suggests some buyers have “shrugged off the current economic and mortgage rate uncertainties and returned to the market.”

Consumer confidence and purchasing power are weakening, with inflation jumping 3.8% in April amid rising energy prices.

April existing sales were flat year-over-year despite improving affordability, with an annual pace of just 4.02 million — below analysts’ expectations.

April employment numbers were better than expected, but for buyers and sellers, “positive momentum matters more than any single month of data,” economists say.

While economic uncertainty persists amid the ongoing war in the Middle East, “the math has shifted in favor of buyers,” according to Zillow’s chief economist.

Sales of new single-family homes climbed 3.3% year-over-year in March as builders continued offering incentives, giving buyers “some serious purchasing power.”

In the wake of the popular chatbot’s launch, home sale prices in San Francisco’s poshest ZIP codes saw an outsized surge compared to the market overall.