Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-May 2026
This 2-part overview for mid-May provides a snapshot of the current housing market.
Note that the Census Bureau is almost caught up on new home sales and housing starts. Census will be caught up on housing starts after the April release on May 21st, and for new home sales, after the April report is released on May 28th. The May reports will be released as originally scheduled in June.
The key story for existing homes is that months-of-inventory is above pre-pandemic levels, due to a combination of slightly increasing inventory and sluggish sales. That means prices are under pressure and we might see a year-over-year decline in prices sometime this year. However, there will not be a huge wave of distressed sales since most homeowners have substantial equity and low mortgage rates.
There are also significant regional differences, with some areas seeing more inventory and price declines, and other areas - like the Northeast - seeing smaller increases in inventory and house prices are increasing.
It also appears 2026 will be a difficult year for homebuilders. There are still a large number of completed homes for sales, a larger than normal number of unsold homes under construction and they are reducing prices to compete with more existing home inventory.
Active Listings for Existing Homes Up Slightly Year-over-year
Realtor.com reports in the April 2026 Monthly Housing Report: Spring Market Weathers Economic Uncertainty that new listings were up 1.1% year-over-year in April. And active listings were up 4.6% year-over-year.
Year-on-year active listings growth is down from last month (when it was 8.1%). In general, year-on-year listing growth has been decelerating since last spring. Nationwide inventory is 12.5% below typical 2017–19 levels, compared to 13.8% below pre-pandemic norms last month.
Active listing growth has slowed recently. Also note the seasonality for active listings. We should expect active listing to pick up through July - but listings are still below pre-pandemic levels (2017 - 2019 on the graph).
Here is some more data on supply and sales.
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