Number of Homes for Sale Continues To Grow—but Housing Market Moves at a Crawl

The first week of October saw sellers reentering the market with new listings, reversing a two-week decline—but overall activity still shows little movement.

Although mortgage rates have retreated from recent highs, settling into the low- to mid-6% range, listings and sales continue to stagnate as buyers and sellers remain reluctant to make a move in today’s uncertain market, according to Realtor.com® senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones.

"Homes continue to spend more time on the market than last year, and prices remain flat, signaling higher inventory and lower competition," says Jones.

Notably, while the national housing market remains lukewarm, parts of the Midwest and Northeast remain strong seller's markets thanks to tight inventory and high demand, which puts pressure on buyers to be prepared and act quickly.

During the week ending on Oct. 4, new listings—a measure of sellers putting homes on the market—ticked up 0.8% year over year, coming off two consecutive weeks of declines, according to the latest weekly housing market trends update.

However, for September, new listings dropped 1.2% compared to last year, reflecting the persistent reluctance of homeowners to list their properties, as seen in the latest monthly housing market trends report from Realtor.com.

"With the best time of year to buy approaching, buyers may enjoy more for-sale options, though long-sitting homes may be more common than fresh listings," says Jones.

Inventory growth slows as prices stall

The overall number of for-sale homes on the national market climbed 15.1% year over year, while the pace of inventory growth has decelerated for the 17th straight week.

Still, last week marked the 100th consecutive week of annual gains in inventory, and there were 1.1 million homes for sale as of Oct. 4.

"Active inventory is growing significantly faster than new listings, an indication that more homes are sitting on the market for longer and homeowners aren’t eager to sell," explains Jones.

The median list price was once again flat compared to the same week in 2024. Adjusting for home size, price per square foot fell 0.5% year-over-year, dropping for the fifth week in a row.

"Price per square foot grew steadily for almost two years, but the weak sales activity has finally caught up and shaken underlying home values despite stable prices," says Jones.

Meanwhile, homes continued taking longer to sell, with the typical listing lingering on the market for 63 days, which is in line with pre-pandemic norms.

"As homes spend longer on the market, sellers are more likely to reduce their asking price, eager to close a sale before the end of the year," says Jones.