Homebuyers

5 Signs the Housing Market Is Getting Better for Homebuyers This Summer

The summer housing market is starting to give homebuyers a little more breathing room.

Home prices are easing, more homes are coming onto the market, and many homebuyers are gaining negotiating power, according to a series of housing reports released in July.

“The housing market is showing clear green shoots of recovery and rebalancing in July,” said New American Funding Principal Analyst Ryan Schoen. “New data reveals easing asking prices, a meaningful increase in homes for sale, and buyers gaining real negotiating leverage in many parts of the country (especially across the Sun Belt).”

Indeed, conditions still vary widely by location. But the latest numbers offer growing evidence that the balance is shifting.

Here are five signs the housing market is getting better for homebuyers this summer.

1. Asking prices are falling

The national median list price fell 2.5% year-over-year in June to $430,000, according to Realtor.com’s latest Monthly Housing Trends report. That marked the eighth straight month of annual declines and the largest drop since Realtor.com began tracking the data in 2017.

Homebuyers may have more room to negotiate as well. About 18.8% of active listings had a price reduction in June, according to Realtor.com.

Interestingly, that was down 1.9 percentage points from a year earlier. Realtor.com attributed the combination of fewer price cuts and lower asking prices to sellers pricing their homes more realistically from the start instead of listing high and reducing the price later.

Lower asking prices are also translating into potential savings on monthly mortgage payments.

2. More homes are hitting the market

Homebuyers are seeing more properties come up for sale, including at the more affordable end of the market.

Zillow’s June Market Report showed that the number of homes for sale in its lowest-priced tier rose 12.2% year-over-year in June.

More than 1.1 million homes were actively listed nationwide during the week ending July 18, according to Realtor.com’s July 23 Weekly Housing Trends report.

This marked the fifth consecutive week above that threshold and the longest such stretch since November 2019.

Housing stock was 2% higher than a year earlier, according to Realtor.com. Meanwhile, about 109,000 new listings came onto the market during the week, up 1.6%.

More homes for sale can give homebuyers greater opportunity to compare properties, prices, and neighborhoods before making an offer.

“After years of tight supply and intense competition, this shift is putting more power back into buyers’ hands, with fewer bidding wars, more room for concessions on price, closing costs, and repairs, and improved affordability on a monthly-payment basis in many markets,” said Schoen.

3. Mortgage rates are lower than last summer

Mortgage interest rates have risen in recent months but are still lower than this time last year. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.58% for the week ending July 23, according to Freddie Mac. That was below the 6.74% average recorded a year earlier.

For a homebuyer purchasing a $400,000 home with 20% down, the difference would amount to roughly $34 less per month in principal and interest compared with the same purchase a year ago.

Mortgage rates aren’t the only part of the affordability equation moving in homebuyers’ favor. The National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Housing Affordability Index has also improved, as mortgage rates remain below year-ago levels and wage growth outpaces home price growth.

4. Home price growth is slowing

Slower home price growth could give homebuyers’ incomes and savings more opportunity to catch up.

In its Midyear Housing Forecast, Realtor.com lowered its prediction for existing-home price growth in 2026 to 1.2%. The company’s original forecast called for prices to rise 2.2%. (Existing homes exclude new construction.)

For perspective, existing-home prices rose an average of 6.5% annually from 2013 through 2019, according to Realtor.com.

The forecast doesn’t call for national home prices to fall. More modest price growth could give some homebuyers additional time to save for a down payment and prepare financially for a purchase.

5. Homebuyers are gaining negotiating power

Perhaps the clearest evidence of how much the housing market has changed is that it’s no longer dominated by sellers.

A record 70% of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan housing markets now favor homebuyers or are moving in that direction, according to Realtor.com’s Market Clock.

That’s up from 52% a year ago and from 37% in 2019.

About 19% of the largest markets were outright homebuyers’ markets during the second quarter, the largest spring share since 2019. Another 50% were balanced markets trending toward homebuyers.

“It’s a positive development that could help sustain momentum in home sales while encouraging more sellers to list, ultimately supporting a healthier, more accessible housing market heading into the second half of 2026,” said Schoen.