Housing Market Tilts in Favor of Buyers as Active Inventory Climbs

Mortgage rate relief is helping the housing market as it continues to shift to a buyer-friendly direction. Active inventory is up and prices are down, according to the Realtor.com® Weekly Housing Trends report for the week ending Feb. 28.

But even with rates lower, it appears buyers are still reluctant to step off the sidelines.

Mortgage interest rates fell into the 5% range for the first time since September 2022, but then inched back up the following week. The average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan registered at 5.98% for the week ending Feb. 26. As of March 5, rates stand at 6%, according to Freddie Mac. This is significantly lower compared with the same time last year when rates averaged 6.63%.

The decrease in rates isn’t low enough for sellers, who are still locked into ultra-low mortgage rates that are preventing them from moving, since the math doesn’t make sense due to the current conditions.

Homeowners who have listed their homes have given in to making price cuts or waiting longer to find a buyer—forcing some sellers to pull their listing rather than accept a lower price.

The report says if mortgage rates continue to fall, “they’ll have more flexibility to make a move and a more eager pool of buyers.”

Weekly trends

Active inventory climbed 6.8% year over year, with the number of homes for sale exceeding 2025 levels. This is giving buyers more options, but they may notice they’re seeing the same listings because the pace of inventory recovery has slowed.

During this same time last year, active inventory was growing closer to 30% year over year.

New listings are down. This measure of sellers putting their homes up for sale dropped by 7.6% year over year. As spring homebuying season approaches, seeing listing momentum will be an important factor for the housing market to continue to recover from the post-pandemic inventory crunch.

New-home completions fell by 7.9% in 2025, according to the report. New listings will need to pick up to help with the lack of inventory.

Overall, homes are spending a median of 68 days on the market. This is the first time that metric fell below 70 days since November 2025, but properties are still spending five days longer on the market than a year ago.

The median listing price fell 2.3% year over year.

“The price correction we have been anticipating since the pace of sales slowed down and inventory started to recover has finally arrived,” says Anthony Smith, senior economist at Realtor.com.

Smith notes that this marks the 19th consecutive week of flat or negative price growth year over year and the sixth straight week in which prices are 2% or more below last year’s levels.

The price per square foot metric is also the lowest on record at -2.4% year over year. The per square footage price suggests that a drop in home prices is taking place, not necessarily smaller homes being listed.