The median home-sale price rose 3.7 percent year-over-year during the four weeks ending Feb. 16, the smallest increase since September 2024, according to a report from Redfin. Additionally, the weekly average mortgage rate dipped to 6.87 percent, its lowest level of the year.
While typical monthly housing costs remain near record highs, decelerating price growth and gradually declining rates are among several small pieces of good news for house hunters, according to Redfin. Here are the others:
- Homebuyers have more total inventory to choose from. There are five months of supply on the market, up from 4.1 months a year earlier and the most since early 2019 (except the four weeks ending Jan. 26, when there were 5.1 months). Supply is piling up because listings are rising while pending home sales are falling, Redfin said.
- Buyers have more new inventory to choose from. New listings are up 4.2 percent year-over-year to their highest level for any comparable time period in three years.
- Buyers have more negotiating power. The typical home is selling for 2 percent less than its asking price, the biggest discount in two years. Additionally, the typical home that sells is taking 57 days to go under contract, the longest span in five years. A slow market in which the typical home is selling under list price means buyers in many markets have the opportunity to negotiate on prices and terms, Redfin noted.
Some markets are more buyer-friendly than others, according to Redfin. The coastal Florida market is tilting in buyers’ favor, while sellers are generally in the driver’s seat in some West Coast and Northeast markets. These conditions may be short-lived as more buyers come off the sidelines.
“If a home needs work or it’s priced too high, it’s sitting on the market,” Cody Brownfield, a Redfin Premier agent in Cincinnati, said in a release. “That’s when a buyer has bargaining power. But updated homes that are priced right—especially those located in desirable neighborhoods with highly rated schools—are selling quickly, sometimes for tens of thousands of dollars over the asking price. It seems like every buyer is looking for the same type of house.”
Pending sales, listings up in LA
In Los Angeles, pending home sales rose 7.4 percent from a year earlier during the four weeks ending Feb. 16, making it one of just seven major metros where sales are increasing. New listings in Los Angeles rose 21.9 percent, the third-biggest increase in the U.S.
The uptick in housing market activity among both homebuyers and sellers likely stems from January’s Palisades and Eaton wildfires, which destroyed thousands of homes in Los Angeles, according to Redfin. Some affluent buyers who lost their homes are now buying new ones, and some homeowners are selling to meet the demand. Additionally, some buyers throughout Los Angeles pressed pause on their house hunt in January, when many parts of life were overshadowed by the devastating fires, and are picking it back up now.