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

This 2-part overview for mid-September 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). It now appears existing home prices will be down nationally year-over-year by the end of 2025.

It has also 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 Year-over-year

Realtor.com reports in the August 2025 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report that new listings were up 4.9% year-over-year in July. And active listings were up 20.9% year-over-year.

Homebuyers found more options in August, as the number of actively listed homes rose 20.9% compared to the same time last year. While this marks the 22nd consecutive month of year-on-year inventory gains, active listing growth has slowed in each of the past three months (down from 24.8% in July, 28.9% in June, and 31.5% in May. The number of homes for sale topped 1 million for the fourth consecutive month, but declined slightly since July. Still, nationwide, August inventory remains 14.3% below typical 2017–19 levels, a gap that has widened from as low as 12.9% in June, an indication that the nationwide inventory recovery is moving in the wrong direction.

Note the seasonality for active listings. It now appears inventory will be below 2019 levels at the end of 2025.

Here is some more data on supply and sales.

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