{"id":6658,"date":"2025-07-17T08:29:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=6658"},"modified":"2025-07-17T08:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:29:59","slug":"with-a-million-homes-now-on-the-u-s-market-why-arent-prices-falling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/with-a-million-homes-now-on-the-u-s-market-why-arent-prices-falling\/","title":{"rendered":"With a Million Homes Now on the U.S. Market, Why Aren\u2019t Prices Falling?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Why<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This year, for the first time since 2019, a million homes are on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listings are up more than 7% from last year, According to Realtor.com<\/em>. Inventory is rising nationwide, with the southern and western parts of the country actually back to 2017-2019 levels! And homes are starting to linger on the market for a while. They\u2019re taking around seven weeks to sell, nationwide. One in five buyers are getting price reductions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the availability of homes is uneven. Some cities built too much, too fast, during and past the height of the pandemic. Meanwhile, other cities added few homes. Those markets are tighter now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And home prices are still rising \u2014 just not as fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Where Is the Affordability?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The number of listings of homes for sale has gone up. Homes are coming on the market in Utah, in Florida, and in Arizona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great. But in most places, the prices<\/em> are also going up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio is one notable exception, says the National Association of REALTORS\u00ae. It\u2019s affordable even by regular folks\u2019 standards. In Cleveland today, workers earning $60K are buying in easily, and making an average mortgage payment<\/a> of $1,900.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohio cities of Akron and Youngstown are also relatively inexpensive. The same applies to St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City. Price tags in major cities in the Carolinas are also coming back down to Earth. Columbus, Des Moines, and Grand Rapids are getting there. And the formerly red-hot markets in and around Austin and Denver have cooled off considerably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois are now offering homes at reasonable prices. West Virginia also has achieved a \u201cbalanced\u201d market. That means a $75K salary is enough to get a mortgage on the typical home. (Mortgage lenders tend to expect loan applicants to earn 3X their mortgage payments.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the high-end market, the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> recently reported on Redfin data showing a record $7 billion in Las Vegas homes currently listed for sale. The median price is $480K. Elevated interest rates are deterring many buyers, according to the Review-Journal<\/em>. And potential buyers are jittery about the economic context \u2014 particularly where tariffs are involved.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Rule, Housing Prices Aren\u2019t Getting Any Lower<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Real estate prices haven\u2019t come down. They are only taking a bit of a breather. U.S. home prices have, in fact, risen 4% from last year, although real estate inflation is easing in many markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But certainly not all. Buyers in Montana and Idaho have yet to catch a break. Many cities on the east and west coasts are still very pricey. Across the board, the median U.S. sale price is $440K. That\u2019s very steep. Here\u2019s some context. That elusive \u201cbalanced\u201d market would offer about half of all listings for under $255K. Our current reality is nothing like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in general, inventory isn\u2019t back to pre-pandemic levels. What\u2019s the holdup?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s more than one factor keeping people from selling. Consider the following reasons people might not want to list their homes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n