Nicole Friedman

It's really pushed a lot of potential buyers out of the market.

So there's just fewer buyers in the market to compete for homes.

And so for the buyers who are left, who can afford homes, they have a lot more leverage.

The homes that are selling are the homes where the sellers are willing to negotiate and the homes where sellers are being stubborn about their price.

are sitting longer on the market and not selling.

And so for the spring, I think the big question is how much are sellers going to be flexible, maybe be willing to cut their prices or offer other concessions or incentives to buyers.

So existing home sales have risen for three straight months, which is the longest streak of gains since late 2024.

And so that shows a little bit of momentum here at the end of the year, driven by slightly lower mortgage rates.

So mortgage rates in recent months have been lower than they were earlier in the year, and that is bringing some buyers into the market.

It's a slightly more affordable time to buy a home.

And so there is some optimism that if rates continue to decline, that that could lead to an increase in home buying activity in 2026.

But overall, home sales are still really low.

This year is still likely to be

at or near the lowest level since the mid-90s for existing home sales.

So even with this slight uptick in momentum, it's from a really low base, and we're not seeing any huge increase in home buying activity just yet.

I think the general experience for home buyers is that it's stressful.

That's our colleague, Nicole Friedman.

She covers real estate.

It's very expensive to buy a home, especially these days.

Home prices are high.