The worry heading into the spring 2026 housing market was that “history would repeat itself” from 2025 and lead into another “cruel summer,” as described by Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale.
Last year, “tariff-driven uncertainty and recession fears” created headwinds for the market, preventing a spring bloom or summer heat-up from taking place. This year, the worry was that the conflict with Iran, which has caused increases in oil prices, gas prices and mortgage rates, could have the same effect.
According to the latest data from Realtor.com®, this year’s spring is shaping up to defy history and set the market up for a better summer.
Realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Trends report for April found that both new and active listings grew month-over-month and year-over-year, a welcome increase in inventory ahead of the coming summer.
Hale said that for real estate professionals, the optimistic scenario for this season was that “sellers would continue coming to market at the strong March pace, and that buyers would keep engaging despite the volatility.”
“By those measures, April delivered,” she affirmed.
Specifically, active listings were up 4% month-over-month and 4.6% year-over-year, and saw a whopping 163.9% increase from April 2022 (when mortgage rates were just rising from historic lows).
New listings were up 8.7% month-over-month and 1.1% year-over-year. Additionally, the national inventory improved slightly from a 13.8% deficit below pre-pandemic levels (2017-2019) in March to an 11.8% deficit this April.
The increase in inventory on the portal lines up with other national reports, as the National Association of Realtors®’ Existing-Home Sales report earlier this month saw a 3% month-over-month and 2.3% year-over-year increase in inventory.
Regionally, year-over-year growth in new listings were overwhelmingly in the Northeast and the Midwest at 9.4% and 6.6%, respectively. The Northeast especially has been known in recent years for being challenged with constrained inventory, with the Midwest facing similar challenges. At the metro level, Virginia Beach, Virginia; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky, led new listing growth.
Other signs
In another note of spring activity, median list prices continue to defrost from record highs, matching with the national trend seen in data like the latest Case-Shiller home price report. Realtor.com saw the median listing price fall 1.4% year-over-year to $425,000, while the median list price per square foot fell -2.4% year-over-year to $227. The share of listings seeing price cuts decreased year-over-year in conjunction with lowering prices.
The combination of lower prices and less price cuts, according to Realtor.com Senior Economist Jake Krimmel “suggests sellers have internalized the generally more buyer-friendly market conditions and are adjusting price expectations before listing rather than after,” calling it a “meaningful behavioral shift.”
The median days of the markets fell 6 days to 52 in March, also signalling more interest from buyers.
Krimmel added that while the spring market is not yet over and it’s too early to evaluate whether it has truly “weathered the storm,” there’s “renewed reason for cautious optimism.”
“The leading indicators that would signal trouble—seller pullback, spiking cancellations, surging price cuts—are, if anything, moving in the right direction,” he continued. “New listings are up, contract cancellations are normal, and seller price cuts that can reveal concern are down.”
Even as things are “moving in the right direction” and buyers appear “relatively unfazed by the volatility” of mortgage rates, Krimmel noted that the conflict with Iran does continue to loom over the housing market.
“A resolution to the recent geopolitical uncertainty would do a world of good for the U.S. consumer and homebuyer,” he said.
