Co-authored by Redfin and Mike Larson, Editor-in-Chief at MoneyShow
Should you’re simply beginning out in actual property, the housing market would possibly really feel like a puzzle with too many transferring items. Costs rise, then fall. Houses appear plentiful one yr and scarce the following. If rates of interest climb earlier than you’ve locked in a mortgage, your potential month-to-month cost could change drastically.
Studying tips on how to acknowledge and adapt to those housing market development shifts might help you whether or not you’re fascinated with shopping for, promoting, or just maintaining a tally of the market.
To assist break all of it down, we’ve partnered with MoneyShow, the place main voices in actual property not too long ago shared their insights on the agency’s Digital Expo platform. On this Redfin information, we’ll stroll by means of key forces shaping actual property as we speak, then take a better take a look at professional views on what’s occurring in 2025. Whether or not you’re eyeing a house in Los Angeles, CA or in Boston, MA, this piece goals to provide the context to learn the market with extra readability.
Why market tendencies matter
Developments are greater than speaking factors; they supply context and guardrails for decision-making. With out them, you may simply misread short-term spikes or dips as one thing extra everlasting.
Right here’s what Redfin information exhibits proper now:
In August 2025, U.S. dwelling costs rose 1.5% year-over-year, with a median sale worth of about $439,419.
In the meantime, the variety of houses bought declined 2.5%, whereas energetic listings elevated 10.1% over the identical interval.
One telling statistic: there are practically 500,000 extra sellers than consumers within the U.S. market, to date the biggest hole on report per Redfin’s information.
And simply over 28% of houses are promoting above asking worth, down from round 32% a yr in the past.
What this information suggests:
The truth that listings are rising whereas gross sales are falling factors to loosening demand and extra room for negotiation.
The excess of sellers relative to consumers is a traditional sign of a purchaser’s market in lots of locations, which means consumers would possibly achieve extra leverage.
Slower gross sales and softer competitors cut back the probability of intense bidding wars, making timing rather less frantic (although native dynamics nonetheless matter rather a lot).
In brief, tendencies flip noise right into a sample, serving to you see when markets may be cooling, heating, or settling into steadiness.
Core elements that form the market
To make sense of tendencies, it helps to grasp the forces at play. Under are the large elements and the way they present up in as we speak’s information:
Provide and demand: The steadiness between obtainable houses and keen consumers shapes costs and negotiation energy.
Rates of interest: Larger charges make mortgages costlier, lowering affordability and sometimes cooling demand. Decrease charges can draw extra consumers in. Test Redfin’s mortgage calculator to see how charges have an effect on month-to-month funds.
Rules and insurance policies: Native or state guidelines, like short-term rental restrictions or new tax proposals, can shift the profitability of proudly owning property in sure areas.
Investor exercise: From small landlords to bigger buyers, their selections to purchase or maintain properties can affect each provide and competitors.
Consider these because the “levers” that hold the housing market in movement.
Learn>> Is Now a Good Time to Purchase a Home?
A take a look at the present actual property market
So, what do these tendencies appear like proper now? Based on MoneyShow contributing consultants, 2025 is shaping as much as be a yr of transition, the place stability is beginning to return, however not with no few surprises.
Multifamily alternatives could also be rising
Kathy Fettke, founding father of RealWealth.com, says multifamily is coming into a “very different world” than latest years. With much less new provide coming on-line in comparison with 2023–2024, she expects pricing and rents to stabilize. She calls this era a possible “sweet spot” within the cycle for buyers.
When provide is constrained, the present rental inventory beneficial properties significance. For anybody watching markets with robust demand for leases, that would imply extra regular money movement and fewer volatility than in oversupplied situations.
Single-family householders are holding regular
Fettke additionally identified that as we speak’s householders aren’t dealing with the identical struggles seen throughout the mid-2000s housing bust. As a result of so many are locked in low, fixed-rate mortgages, they’re not underneath strain to promote even when charges are excessive now. That stability makes a widespread housing crash unlikely.
For on a regular basis consumers, which means that whereas costs should still really feel excessive, they’re much less prone to see sharp, destabilizing drops. It’s a reminder that not all “slowdowns” out there are the identical.
Overseas consumers and life modifications are bringing motion
This is a crucial reminder that the housing market isn’t static; life occasions and outdoors consumers create churn even when affordability is tight.
Traders stay an energetic presence
Thomas Malone, principal economist at Cotality, observes that small and mid-size buyers nonetheless account for about “25–30% of market activity.” Even because the broader market cools, their continued presence helps stability in sure segments.
That blend of participation helps clarify why provide imbalances don’t all the time result in massive worth declines — investor demand can take in some slack, particularly in markets with rental demand or upward momentum.
The takeaway
For anybody starting their journey in actual property, the objective isn’t to foretell the long run; it’s to grasp the forces at play so you can also make knowledgeable, assured selections when the time is correct.
