The hope for “resilience” and a year of stabilization in the housing market continues into the second half of 2026, as Realtor.com® Senior Economist Jake Krimmel said “the jury is still out” on whether or not we’re seeing a summer slowdown in the portal’s latest Monthly Housing Trends Report for July.
Some signs in the report were encouraging: The median listing price slipped -0.2% month-over-month and -2.4% year-over-year to $428,950, and active listings grew 2.1% both month-over-month and year-over-year to 1,126,252.
In addition, median days on the market—while up four days month-over-month to 57—actually observed the first outright annual decline in 26 consecutive months by falling one day year-over-year. This also matched up to the pre-pandemic (2019) number.
Other signs were more complicated: Price cuts were up 1.2 percentage points month-over-month to 20%, but the year-over-year gap narrowed to 0.6 percentage points. New listings were also down 8.6% month-over-month and 2.5% year-over-year to 423,732.
Overall, this month’s report shows “a market that is cooling seasonally, not coming apart,” according to Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.
“Sellers are making more price adjustments as summer progresses, and buyers are responding more selectively, but homes are still going under contract at a faster pace than last year,” she explained.
Regional divides persist
Stark variances between the four census regions were once again seen in July, a trend that’s been persistent in recent months.
Realtor.com found that median list prices declined in the West and the South (-3.9% and -2.5%, respectively), while the Northeast and the Midwest saw growth (+1.4% and +0.2%, respectively). The trend was the same for price-per-square-foot: The Northeast and Midwest were up (+0.6% and +1.8%, respectively), while the West and South were down (-1.2% and -2.9%, respectively).
Active listings on the portal were similarly divided, with the strongest growth in the Midwest and Northeast (+9.3% and +8.3%, respectively), while the South was nearly flat (-0.2%) and the West saw minor growth (0.6%).
The sharpest inclines among the top 50 largest metros were centered in the Midwest, South and West: Minneapolis, Minnesota, was up 29.3%; Louisville, Kentucky, was up 24.9%; and Seattle, Washington, was up 21.4%. The largest declines were centered in the South and the West: Jacksonville, Florida, was down 20%; Miami, Florida, was down 16.9%; and San Francisco, California, was down 16.3%.
Another divide was seen across new listings, as the Midwest and the West saw growth (+3.2% and +0.9%, respectively), while the Northeast and the South were down (-5.1% and -0.4%, respectively).
Looking ahead
As the housing market transitions into the second half of 2026, with typical seasonal trends expecting a slowdown in activity, Krimmel said the signs to watch are price cuts, pending sales and delistings.
“Those three were the hallmarks of last year’s Cruel Summer: sellers cut prices at the highest rate in our data’s history, pending sales fell anyway as buyers largely said, ‘No, thanks,’ and delistings surged as sellers gave up,” he continued.
As of July, Krimmel said these three measures are doing better historically, but—as this report noted—price cuts have been seeing some growth.
Hale said that the “key question for the months ahead is whether price reductions help sustain buyer engagement or signal that sellers are getting ahead of softer demand.”
“August’s data will tell us whether we’re in the midst of a normal seasonal slowdown or, if all three are moving in the wrong direction, the beginning signs of a stagnant market,” Krimmel added.
Krimmel also called out the trend of “resilience” that was outlined by him and several other economists throughout the first half of 2026, a trend that the industry is definitely hoping will continue throughout the rest of the year.
The Iran conflict persisting, however, has thrown a bit of a wrench into this hope, as a continued conflict most likely means continued elevation in inflation and mortgage rates.
Krimmel concluded that, like the Federal Reserve’s stance this year, the housing market will have to adopt a “wait and see” approach.
“It looks like we’ll be on ‘housing market resilience watch’ for the foreseeable future,” he said.
