Friendlier Market for HomeBuyers – Reach out to Sandy Herrick

The much anticipated spring selling season is a few weeks away, and signs point to a friendlier market for homebuyers.

The share of consumers saying that now is a good time to buy was the highest in over a year, but still only at 24%. Meanwhile, the share of those saying that it’s a good time to sell remains high, at 62%.

On the one hand, this aligns with the data. The Realtor.com® weekly housing inventory showed that listing prices softened as new listings and active inventory growth both rose and homes took longer to sell. These are all signs consistent with a housing market shifting into buyer-friendlier territory.

At the same time, when the market is shifting and uncertain, it can be wise to home in on seasonal patterns that are fairly predictable. Realtor.com this week released a Best Time To Sell report, which gives homeowners the context they need to take advantage of typical seasonal patterns in buying and selling.

Nationwide, the best time to list a home for sale is roughly one month away: April 13–19.  Sellers hitting this sweet spot can anticipate faster sales than at other times of the year, more eyeballs on their listing, and higher prices with a lower likelihood of having to make a reduction.

Inflation and mortgage

After months of being perhaps the most important indicator, this week’s inflation data barely made noise as it reversed its upward creep, dipping lower in both overall and core measures. While this is good news, it has been overshadowed by other concerns.

Stock markets have corrected as investors attempt to adjust expectations for the shift in tariff policy. This has prompted some to seek safety in bonds and driven 10-year yields down from 4.5% one month ago to 4.3% or lower. This shift had propelled mortgage rates lower for seven weeks, but that streak was broken this week as mortgage rates inched up. Nonetheless, the market mortgage rate trailed its year-ago pace for a fourth week, timing that could make for a better spring buying season this year.

While mortgage rates began easing in mid-January, they remained high through much of February, and this weighed down home purchase sentiment alongside rising worries about respondents’ personal financial situations.

And finally, I was fortunate enough to join my colleagues in Austin this week for the release of our Housing Supply Gap report. Realtor.com hosted a series of panel discussions at SXSW on the challenges of and opportunities to address America’s housing shortage.

This year’s report gave reason for optimism: New construction outpaced household formations for the first time since 2016—progress that, if sustained, could mean that the supply gap closes in 7.5 years. However, that’s a long time to wait for the 3.8 million homes needed, which includes demand from an estimated 1.6 million Gen Z and millennial households that didn’t exist in 2024 due in part to a lack of affordable housing.