Finding an affordable home is a delicate dance for buyers. With the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) falling in recent weeks and the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 0.25%, buyers are seeing more and more opportunities. Some of these opportunities come in the form of homes in need of remodeling.
Homes designated as “fixer-uppers” are seeing higher demand than their older, more affordable counterparts, according to a recent report from Realtor.com®.
Typically, fixer-uppers are older homes that require a certain amount of work and that come with a lower price tag. To find homes considered a fixer-upper, researchers examined any listing priced below the median price per square foot in its zip code and was at least 20 years old on Realtor.com within July 2021 and July 2025.
They also used Snowflake—a large language model tool—to read listing descriptions and determine whether each home was marketed as a fixer-upper or move-in-ready. Some of the keywords or phrases it identified included “needs work,” “renovation-ready,” “needs some love” and “handyman special.”
Based on their data, they found that fixer-uppers received 52% more page views per property than older, more affordable homes.
In July 2025 alone, searches for “fixer-upper” were more than triple the volume from four years ago.
“Compared to four years ago, when rates were lower and homes were slightly more affordable, buyers today are showing more interest in fixer-uppers,” said Joel Berner, Realtor.com’s senior economist. “For those willing to roll up their sleeves, sweat equity can be just as valuable as cash in hand.”
The report states that a typical fixer-upper has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and was built around 1958. Fixer-uppers are usually older and smaller, with a median square footage of about 1,628 square feet. Although a typical single-family home clocks in at about 2,000 square feet, the report states that fixer-uppers are appealing to buyers because “they offer something in short supply: a more affordable path to homeownership for buyers willing to put in sweat equity.”
According to Realtor.com, there were about 79,000 fixer-uppers on the market in July 2025. This is up 18.8% from July 2021—when there were nearly 67,000 fixer-upper listings—although this is a lower share in listings at 5.2%, which was previously 6.1%.
Lower prices make it easier on a buyer’s budget. As reported by Realtor.com, homes marketed as fixer-uppers had a median listing price of just $200,000 nationwide—or a 54% discount compared to the $436,250 median price for all single-family homes.
Although housing starts are slowing down in markets in both the Midwest and South, they’re seemingly being replaced by fixer-uppers as buyers seek to reuse existing homes instead.
The report states that the markets with the most fixer-uppers tend to be in the Midwest and Northeast, while the ones with the best discounts are mostly in the Midwest and South. Midwestern markets are central for fixer-uppers possibly due to the collection of aging homes with room for improvements.
The researchers note that the markets with the most fixer-uppers have the fewest new builds. Regions experiencing a harder time creating new housing likely opt to renovate existing housing instead, showing that Midwestern and Southern states aren’t exactly falling.
Danielle Hale, Realtor.com’s chief economist, affirmed that “(f)ixer-uppers give buyers a way to break into the housing market at a time when affordability is still stretched thin.”
The top five markets that rank in the top 10 for both share of fixer-upper listings and price savings—dubbed the “Fixer-Upper Five” by Realtor.com—are:
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Detroit, Michigan
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Toledo, Ohio
- Dayton, Ohio
These markets offer fixer-uppers with prices usually less than half that of move-in-ready homes, according to the report. Toledo has the highest share of fixer-uppers on the list at 10.3%, but the city is outdone by Syracuse, New York, where 11.5% of all listings are fixer-uppers.
Buyers are likely to get the best deal in Jackson with a 77.7% discount. A typical fixer-upper costs about $66,750 in Jackson, while the median listing price for a single-family home is about $299,000.
Waco, Texas—home to HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” series—is excluded from the list because it falls outside the top 100 metros. But it typically offers a fixer-upper discount of more than 53.4%. Coupled with fixer-uppers accounting for about 10% of all listings, Waco remains an honorable mention within the report.
For homebuyers on a budget, fixer-uppers are a viable option. They do tend to spend slightly longer on the market than other homes—53 days on average compared to 50.5 days for single-family homes—but the report notes that the slight gap has closed significantly since 2021.
“For those with the vision and a toolbox, fixer-uppers provide both a starting point in the market and the chance to create a home that’s truly their own,” Hale said. “For sellers, listing their home as a fixer-upper at a lower price may generate more interest online than if they spend extra money on upgrades to make it move-in-ready.”
For the full report, click here.
