Housing Supply Increasing While the Number of Buyers Declines
Originally Published by: HBS Dealer — August 27, 2026
SBCA appreciates your input; please email us if you have any comments or corrections to this article.
More homes are on the market, but fewer buyers are turning up.
New listings rose 0.4% from a week earlier during the four weeks ending August 23 to their highest level since April. That's according to a new report from Redfin. The total number of homes for sale rose 0.5% week over week, hitting their highest level since May.
Pending home sales, meanwhile, fell 1.1% from a week earlier to their lowest level in six months. Would-be buyers are sitting on the sidelines largely because housing costs are high: The median U.S. home-sale price rose 1.9% year over year to over $400,000, and the weekly average mortgage rate is 6.65%—down from a peak of 6.69% two weeks earlier, but still near the highest level in 13 months. Some house hunters are also holding off due to economic uncertainty, with some waiting to see if mortgage rates come down in the next few months.
With inventory rising and demand declining, the homebuyers who are in the market could get a deal. It's a buyer's market in much of the country, led by Miami, Nashville and much of Texas; in those places, buyers may be able to negotiate prices down and/or get concessions. A separate Redfin analysis found that late August or early September are prime times for buyers to score a deal in 11 U.S. metro areas, including much of California, Seattle and a pair of New York City suburbs.
"Buyers have an opportunity to get a deal done before the market potentially picks back up after Labor Day," said Chen Zhao, Redfin's head of economics research. "House hunters should consider homes that have been listed for several weeks; sellers of those homes may be willing to accept an offer under asking price, provide concessions like a mortgage-rate buydown or make repairs based on an inspection. Sellers should resist the urge to price based on what a neighbor got a year or two ago: Pricing a home correctly from the start can be the difference between attracting a serious buyer and lingering on the market."
Leading indicators
| Indicators of homebuying demand and activity | ||||
| Value (if applicable) | Recent change | Year-over-year change |
Source | |
| Daily average 30-year fixed mortgage rate |
6.75% (Aug. 26) | Down from 6.8% a week earlier | Up from 6.61% | Mortgage News Daily |
| Weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate |
6.65% (week ending Aug. 20) | Lowest level in a month | Up from 6.58% | Freddie Mac |
| Mortgage-purchase applications (seasonally adjusted) |
Down 0.3% from a week earlier (as of week ending Aug. 21) | Down 5% | Mortgage Bankers Association |
|
| Google searches of "homes for sale" |
Essentially unchanged from a month earlier (as of Aug. 15) | Essentially unchanged | Google Trends | |
| Touring activity | Up 8% from the start of the year (as of Aug. 15) | At this time last year, it was up 27% from the start of 2025 | ShowingTime | |
Key housing-market data
|
U.S. highlights: Four weeks ending Aug. 23, 2026 Redfin's national metrics include data from 900+ U.S. metro areas and are based on homes listed and/or sold during the period. |
||||
| Four weeks ending Aug. 23, 2026 |
Year-over-year change |
Week-over-week change (where applicable) |
Notes | |
| Median sale price | $400,649 | 1.9 % | ||
| Median asking price (seasonally adjusted) |
$394,353 | Unchanged | ||
| Median monthly mortgage payment (seasonally adjusted) |
$2,600 at a 6.65% mortgage rate |
0.6 % | ||
| Pending sales (seasonally adjusted) |
307,830 | -3.1 % | -1.1 % | Lowest level since February |
| New listings (seasonally adjusted) |
376,235 | 6 % | 0.4 % | Highest level since April |
| Active listings (seasonally adjusted) |
1,504,085 | 1.6 % | 0.5 % | |
| Months of supply | 3.8 | Up from 3.7 | 4 to 5 months of supply is considered balanced, with a lower number indicating seller's market conditions | |
| Share of homes off market in two weeks |
30.8 % | Essentially unchanged |
||
| Median days on market | 44 | Unchanged | ||
| Share of home listings with price drops |
20.8 % | Essentially unchanged |
||
| Share of homes sold above list price |
26.3 % | Up from about 25% | ||
| Average sale-to-list price ratio |
98.8 % | Up from 98.6% | ||
|
Metro-level highlights: Four weeks ending Aug. 23, 2026 Redfin's metro-level rankings data includes the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Select metros may be excluded from time to time to ensure data accuracy. |
|||
| Metros with biggest year- over-year increases |
Metros with biggest year- over-year decreases |
||
| Median sale price |
West Palm Beach, FL (10.2%) Newark, NJ (8.9%) Pittsburgh (7.9%) Cleveland (7.5%) Milwaukee (7.2%) |
Seattle (-4.6%) Austin, TX (-3.7%) Fort Worth, TX (-1.7%) San Jose, CA (-1.7%) Houston (-1.5%) |
|
| Pending sales |
West Palm Beach, FL (4.7%) Milwaukee (4.3%) San Francisco (3.3%) St. Louis (2.4%) Cincinnati (2.2%) |
Seattle (-18.1%) Houston (-15.3%) Denver (-13.2%) San Diego (-12.9%) Atlanta (-10.6%) |
|
| New listings |
Virginia Beach, VA (14.3%) San Jose, CA (13.3%) Boston (9%) St. Louis (8.9%) Seattle (8.9%) |
Dallas (-12.3%) Atlanta (-9.4%) San Antonio (-4.6%) Columbus, OH (-4.2%) Jacksonville, FL (-4.2%) |
|
View the full report here.