A new survey from Zillow finds a striking reversal in market dynamics: by the fourth quarter of 2025, 51% of agents said market conditions were favoring buyers, the first time that had been true all year. From this same time last year, inventory is up 5%, the monthly mortgage payment on a typical U.S. home has dropped 7.7% and existing-home sales are trending higher. Zillow Chief Economist Mischa Fisher described it as a market “starting to regain its confidence.”
But on the ground, the mood is more complicated.
Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, says buyer activity has been solid, until recently. “We’re starting to see a little bit of buyers sitting on their hands and waiting,” she describes. “Because obviously, there’s a bit of volatility. Anytime there’s geopolitical issues, wars—the sentiment of the consumer changes.”
She notes that rates have ticked up, a reminder of how quickly affordability gains can evaporate. “We’re in a market that’s very rate driven,” Freedman says.
Brooke Sines, a broker serving both the Charlotte, North Carolina, area and West Michigan, describes buyers as active but noticeably more cautious than a year ago. “They are active, but they’re definitely more selective,” she says. “They’re taking longer to make decisions—waiting for rates to improve a little bit more, or hoping for a price drop.”
She also flagged a disconnect between national headlines and local realities that she says is confusing buyers. “The headlines, a lot of the time, are giving national data, whereas the local markets, you just hone in on that and you can get a much better pulse on what’s happening.”
Jamie Tian, co-founder and CEO of RealiFi Realty in Los Angeles (LA), describes a market that was building genuine momentum—and then abruptly lost it.
“In January and February, I started to see a really good recovery,” she says. “Buyers got used to the fact that we’re not going to see 3% rates again. Some of the sellers are starting to get a little bit more reasonable.”
But Tian says geopolitical and economic turbulence—rising rates, stock market volatility, broader uncertainty—hit the brakes almost overnight. “I felt like the first two months of the year, we were having a recovery-type market, but now it’s very much a hesitation-type market.”
She adds that buyers in LA may technically have more leverage than a few weeks ago, but aren’t acting on it. “They’re too scared to take advantage of it.”
Sellers haven’t gotten the memo
A recurring theme across agents is that sellers seem to still be anchored to a market that no longer exists. Agents in Zillow’s survey described sellers as stubborn about price expectations, with one telling Zillow that sellers still expected to “get triple the asking price.”
That gap between seller expectations and reality is one of the biggest friction points this spring.
Freedman tells RISMedia that data is ultimately the most effective tool for moving a reluctant seller. “The market dictates the price. Your price doesn’t dictate the market,” she says.
She describes one listing that sat unsold for months until the agent showed the seller recent comparable sales in the building. “The seller was then finally willing to make a price reduction. And now we have interest.”
Her bottom line for sellers is “if people are not coming to see your home, that means you’re probably overpriced.”
Sines puts it a bit more bluntly. “Sellers really think that homes are still selling like they were in 2021-2022, and that’s absolutely not the case,” she says.
Her approach is what she calls precision pricing—setting an aggressive but data-supported number rather than testing the market high and waiting.
She describes a recent listing where the sellers expected around $320,000. Her recommended list price was $330,000, backed by comparables from the past three months. The move drew seven offers and will close at $20,000 over the listing price. “If those sellers would have said we really think our home is worth $350,000 and we would have started there,” she says, “I don’t think that home would be under contract today.”
Tian says the seller-pricing dynamic plays out differently in Los Angeles, where her clients tend to be closely attuned to their local market—and their attitudes can give agents insight into their mindset.
“In my opinion, those sellers that are unrealistic may not be real sellers,” she says. “Anyone who has to sell, or wants to sell in the current market, is usually pretty educated about the trends going on in their neighborhood.”
She says she hasn’t faced much resistance on pricing conversations—though she notes the broader backdrop is shifting fast enough that comps from even a few months ago may no longer apply.
The hidden inventory debate
Freedman raises an issue that has become a flashpoint in the industry this spring—the rise of private or off-market listings.
She was pointed in her criticism. “If you understand that the market is a living thing and you want real price discovery, you have to put things on the market,” she says.
One of the big pitches by proponents of premarketing—loosely defined, but usually meaning properties shared in a limited capacity—is that they don’t have to track days on market or price drops.
Freedman questions what the practice means for buyers. “What choice do buyers have if things are hidden?” She also raises fair housing concerns, asking whether price reductions on private listings are being disclosed and whether excluding buyers from seeing available homes creates legal exposure.
Freedman draws a distinction between sellers who explicitly request privacy and the industry-wide push to route listings through private networks as a standard practice.
“We’ve been selling homes quietly and privately for decades, when sellers ask us to,” she says. “We’ve never called them and said, ‘Hey, put it on our private network; we can hide days on market.’ Because who does that benefit?”
From Charlotte to West Michigan, the same cautious optimism
Sine’s dual-market vantage point offers a useful data point—the spring hesitation appears to be a national pattern, not a regional quirk.
In West Michigan, she says days on market dropped sharply in mid-March—from the 50s the previous week to an average of 35—a sign that activity is building. In Charlotte, underlying demand remains intense, Sines notes, citing a study stating that 157 people are moving to Charlotte daily. “It will be tough for the growth in the market to keep up.”
But in both markets, the best-performing listings share a profile. “If they are priced right, in good condition and good marketing, then they are selling with multiple offers,” Sines says. Homes that need work or carry ambitious prices are sitting longer—which, she notes, is actually creating genuine opportunities for buyers willing to take on a project.
Her messaging to sellers has sharpened this spring: price aggressively, get the home show-ready and don’t expect the market to reward wishful thinking.
Tian notes that in her region, the hesitation is especially pronounced at the higher end of the market and among investors.
“When someone’s trying to buy their first home, there’s more of an emotional aspect to it—an actual need for that property,” she says. “Investors are mostly speculative, and they have lots of areas where they can invest their money. When the overall economy is not strong, those investor-type buyers are even more hesitant than an owner-occupant.”
Despite that, her advice to buyers who are ready has sharpened in recent weeks. Six months ago she was telling clients that rates would drop and competition would return. Now?
“There’s an opportunity right now for decisive buyers. There’s a little bit less activity, and the rates going up has caused a few buyers to drop out of the market. If you’re able to make a decision, right now is the time to negotiate and get a good deal. And when rates do come down, most likely multiple offers and a lot more competition will come back.”
Reasons to be (cautiously) optimistic
Despite the hesitation, the data points to a more active year ahead.
About 61% of agents in Zillow’s survey expect transaction volume to increase over the next 12 months, up from 53% in the third quarter of 2025. Zillow projects 4.26 million existing-home sales in 2026, a 4.3% increase from last year. Newly pending listings showed 3.5% growth from a year earlier, and the share of homes selling above list price ticked up—a sign that serious buyers are still willing to compete for the right home.
Freedman’s pitch to anyone who has been waiting two or three years and is still on the fence was direct. “You’re not getting any deals in the rental market,” she says.
Her advice to buyers is if the home fits, the finances work and you’re planning to stay put for a while, stop waiting. “If you can afford it and it makes sense for you, you definitely should buy,” she says—while adding that the calculus is ultimately personal. “It’s so circumstantial.”
