The housing market continued to favor buyers in May

But fewer buyers took advantage of growing inventory

By Mark Huffman of ConsumerAffairs

June 16, 2025

• U.S. housing inventory surpassed 1 million listings for the first time since winter 2019, but recovery is concentrated in Southern and Western metros.

• New construction drives market rebound in cities like Denver, Austin, and Seattle, while inventory-starved regions in the Northeast and Midwest continue to lag.

• Affordability challenges persist as price cuts hit a record for May and homes spend more time on the market despite growing supply.

The news keeps getting better for prospective homebuyers. Prices and mortgage rates remain elevated but the number of available homes on the market is surging.

The Realtor.com May 2025 Housing Trends Report shows the number of active listings has climbed above 1 million for the first time since Winter 2019.

However, those available homes are not evenly distributed across the country. Only metros in the South and West have returned to pre-pandemic inventory levels. The Northeast and Midwest remain constrained by tight supply, reducing affordability and competition in those regions.

“The number of homes for sale is growing, and even hit a key milestone in May, with more than a million active listings. But not every housing market is equally well-supplied,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.

Buyers remain cautious

Despite a 31.5% year-over-year increase in active listings and a modest 2.0% uptick in median listing price to $440,000, buyer momentum hasn’t kept pace. Homes spent 51 days on the market, six days longer than a year ago. The share of homes with price reductions rose to 19.1%, the highest for any May since at least 2016, signaling a cooling in demand or buyer hesitation due to affordability pressures.

Additional national metrics include:

• New Listings: 465,096 (up 7.2% YoY, but still 20.4% below pre-pandemic levels)

• Median Listing Price per Sq.Ft: $234 (up 0.6% YoY and 53.3% from May 2019)

• Price Cuts: Up 2.4 percentage points YoY

Of the 50 largest U.S. metros, only 22 have fully rebounded to 20172019 inventory levels, and all are located in the South or West. They include:

• Denver: Active listings up 63.9% YoY and 100% above pre-pandemic levels

• Austin: Inventory 69% higher than pre-pandemic

• Seattle: Up 60.9% compared to 2019

Realtor.com said these cities benefited from aggressive post-pandemic homebuilding, which has translated into more listings, longer time on market, and, in many cases, softening prices.

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