Have lower mortgage rates already changed the housing market?

"After the extreme seller's market that followed COVID-19, we experienced unhealthy housing market conditions in late 2020. By early 2021 I was talking about the need for higher mortgage rates to cool things off but that didn't happen. By early 2022 the housing market was savagely unhealthy. So far, 2025 has been the healthiest year for the housing market since the pandemic!"

"The housing market began to shift in mid-June, and inventory growth slowed significantly to the point that, for the first time in many years, our inventory data showed a decline in August, which is not the usual pattern. Early in August, I believed we hadn't yet seen the peak in inventory for 2025 and I anticipated inventory would grow above recent highs. So far, that hasn't happened yet."

"We have been slowly working our way back to normal inventory and for 2025, I expected we would get at least 80,000 weekly new listings during the peak seasonal months. So, I was pretty excited when we saw over 80,000 listings printed in late May. However, I didn't anticipate that this would be the peak for the year. Since then, we have been gradually declining, and we are now into the usual seasonal decline."

Inventory growth in 2025 brought the housing market closer to normal following the extreme seller's market after COVID-19 and unhealthy conditions in 2020–2022. The market shifted in mid-June when inventory growth slowed and August recorded an atypical decline. Year-over-year inventory growth peaked near 33% and is now about 20%. A standard seasonal peak would usually produce 80,000–100,000 weekly new listings; over 80,000 printed in late May but did not become a sustained high. New listings declined into the usual seasonal downturn, fewer sellers appeared in June–August, and price-cut percentages have recently stabilized.

Read at www.housingwire.com