Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-August 2025

This 2-part overview for mid-August provides a snapshot of the current housing market.

The key stories this year for existing homes are that inventory increased sharply, and sales are down slightly compared to last year (and sales in 2024 were the lowest since 1995). That means prices are under pressure (although there will not be a huge wave of distressed sales).

And it has been a disappointing year for new homebuilders (but not as horrible as the housing bust!). Homebuilders have a growing number of completed homes for sales, a larger than normal number of unsold homes under construction and are reducing prices to compete with more existing home inventory.

Active Listings for Existing Homes Up Sharply Year-over-year

Realtor.com reports in the July 2025 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report that new listings were up 7.3% year-over-year in July. And active listings were up 24.8% year-over-year.

Homebuyers found more options in July, as the number of actively listed homes rose 24.8% compared with the same time last year. There are now over 1.1 million homes for sale nationwide, the third consecutive month with over 1 million active listings.

While July marks the 21st consecutive month of inventory gains, the pace of growth is beginning to slow. Active listings rose less than in prior months—down from 28.9% in June and 31.5% in May—suggesting the post-pandemic inventory recovery could be stalling a bit. Nationally, total active listings in July remained 13.4% below typical 2017–19 levels, a slightly wider gap than last month’s 12.9% shortfall. Overall, inventory growth seems to be slightly decelerating after taking off in early spring.

Note the seasonality for active listings. It now appears inventory will be close to 2019 levels by the end of 2025, and since sales are still depressed, months-of-supply will increase.

Here is some more data on supply and sales.

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