Existing-home sales in the U.S. jumped 5.1% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.35 million in December, surpassing the consensus expectation of 4.23 million and representing the highest rate in almost three years, the National Association of REALTORS® said. Year over year, sales rose 1.4%.
“2025 was another tough year for homebuyers, marked by record-high home prices and historically low home sales,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “However, in the fourth quarter, conditions began improving, with lower mortgage rates and slower home price growth. December home sales, after adjusting for seasonal factors, were the strongest in nearly three years. The gains were broad-based, with all four major regions improving from the prior month.”
Housing inventory fell 18.1% from November to 1.18 million units, which represents a 3.5% gain from December 2025. Given the rate of sales, the nation had a 3.3-month supply of unsold homes, down from 4.2 months in November but up from 2.2 months a year earlier.
“Inventory levels remain tight,” Yun added. “With fewer sellers feeling eager to move, homeowners are taking their time deciding when to list or delist their homes. Similar to past years, more inventory is expected to come to market beginning in February.”
The median existing-home price rose 0.4% year over year to $405,400, marking the 30th straight month of annual increases. Meanwhile, the average mortgage rate was 6.19% in December, down from 6.24% the previous month and 6.72% a year ago.
Regionally, sales were up month-over-month across the board. Year-over-year, sales rose in the South, were flat in the Midwest and West, and declined in the Northeast.
30-year fixed mortgage rates dropped to about 6.15%, the lowest since September 2022
Some lenders are advertising rates as low as 5.75% for qualified buyers
Nassau County median home price reached $840,000; Suffolk hit a record $725,000
Long Island housing inventory remains historically low, limiting affordability and sales
Prospective homebuyers are starting the new year with a glimmer of hope, as mortgage rates have dropped to their lowest levels in three years, though high Long Island home prices continue to hamper housing market activity.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now just north of 6 percent, which is lower than any point in 2025 and the lowest since Sept. 2022, according to Bankrate.com.
The average rate on 30-year fixed home loans decreased to 6.15 percent for the week ending Dec. 31, according to Freddie Mac. By comparison, rates averaged 6.91 percent during the same period in 2024.
While rates vary based on credit scores, down payment and upfront points, lenders are now advertising 30-year fixed-rate loans as low as 5.75 percent (U.S. Bank), 5.825 percent (Guaranteed Rate), 6 percent (M&T) and 6.125 percent (Bank of America and Wells Fargo).
And though mortgage rates have been considered high in the last couple of years when compared with the ultra-low COVID-era rates, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate actually averaged 7.7 percent from 1971 through 2025, according to TradingEconomics.com, with an all-time high of 18.63 percent in Oct. 1981 and a record low of 2.65 percent in Jan. 2021.
But despite the lower rates, homebuyers on Long Island are still stymied by record high home prices, which mortgage brokers say is the biggest obstacle facing the housing market, especially for younger buyers just starting out.
The median price of closed single-family home sales in Nassau County in November was $840,000, which was $3,000 more than the October median price of $837,000 and 8.4 percent higher than the $775,000 median price recorded in Nov. 2024, according to numbers from OneKey MLS.
In Suffolk County, the median price of closed single-family home sales in November was an all-time high of $725,000, an increase of $24,000 from the previous month and 11.1 percent higher than the $652,500 median price of a year ago.
Housing industry observers say home prices are rising because the number of available homes for sale is so low.
There were 5,114 Long Island homes, including single-family, condos and co-ops, listed for sale with OneKey MLS at the end of November—2,159 in Nassau and 2,955 in Suffolk. That’s 669 fewer homes than were listed for sale the previous month, and 13.4 percent fewer than the 5,899 homes that were listed for sale at the end of Nov. 2024.
As a further illustration of the historically low inventory, when mortgage rates in Nov. 2008 matched the current rates, there were 23,367 Long Island homes listed for sale with MLS, four-and-a-half times as many as this past November.
Jesse Sasso, branch manager and loan officer at Contour Mortgage in Huntington, told LIBN last year that the mortgage rate isn’t impacting demand from prospective homebuyers, though prices certainly are.
“They’re way more concerned with the prices now. And I think that that’s going to have to come to a head,” Sasso said. “The inventory has got to increase. If the inventory doesn’t increase, it’s simple supply and demand. And if the availability doesn’t increase, then the values are going to continue to increase. People are just going to pull back from buying, regardless of the rates.”
Kevin Leatherman, owner-broker at Leatherman Homes in Rockville Centre, told LIBN last month that lower mortgage rates are a double-edged sword.
“The challenge is, when the mortgage rates go down, you’re going to have more competition,” he said, adding that a rate drop could precipitate a rise in inventory. “I think until you have a situation where the current mortgage rate is closer to the rate that somebody’s currently paying, the spread has to narrow in order to get more sellers into the market.”
An empty lot at 3901 Elati Street in Fox Island, Dec. 24, 2025.
Kyle Harris / Denverite
The developer Fox Street Investments spent millions of dollars buying 3901 North Elati Street and designing a 20-story building with 400 apartments in Globeville.
A few years later, the dusty lot sits empty in that slice of Globeville known as Fox Island. The promise of housing has yet to be fulfilled. And the company is suing the city of Denver.
A complaint the company filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday argues the city is preventing the developer from building much-needed housing on the three-quarters of an acre lot with “arbitrary” rules and mandates.
“For decades, the City has failed to invest in sufficient public traffic infrastructure in the Globeville neighborhood, one of Denver’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods,” the complaint states. “Instead, the City adopted development rules within Fox Island … that attempt to completely and unlawfully shift this burden to the last-in-time developers trying to build housing in the neighborhood.”
Denver Community Planning and Development and the City Attorney’s Office declined to answer Denverite’s questions about the complaint since it’s pending litigation.
The requirements for the developer to improve traffic infrastructure are beyond the scope of the project and address needs far beyond what the new development will create, the complaint argues.
“The Rules are unconstitutionally vague and provide unidentified City bureaucrats with apparently unlimited discretion to condition development of the Property on FSI’s agreement to construct public traffic infrastructure improvements that are not directly linked to any resulting impacts from the development of the Property and that are completely disproportionate to such impacts,” the complaint states.
The company estimates that without the rules, the land would be worth $20 million. As is, with current rules, it’s “essentially worthless.”
The city has long negotiated with developers to add amenities that will benefit the public good to their projects: affordable housing, landscaping and more.
But the developer argues the city has gone too far and is interfering with the city’s own goals of increasing housing stock.
The company is asking the court to declare the rules unlawful and for the city to financially compensate the company so it can build the project it has set out to complete.
Mortgage rates are trending lower, with forecasts pointing to further easing next year.
The number of Long Island home sales rose last month, as inventory fell and prices pulled back.
There were 2,218 closed home sales in Nassau and Suffolk counties in October, 204 more than the previous month and 109 more than in Oct. 2024, according to numbers from OneKey MLS.
Inventory decreased last month as compared with the previous month and also dropped year over year.
There were 5,783 Long Island homes listed for sale at the end of October—2,473 in Nassau and 3,310 in Suffolk. That’s 312 fewer homes than were listed for sale the previous month, and nearly 10 percent fewer than the 6,421 homes that were listed for sale at the end of Oct. 2024.
The numbers for listings and sales include single-family homes, condominiums, and co-ops. The Suffolk numbers don’t reflect all sales on the East End.
Home prices retreated last month, falling in both Nassau and Suffolk.
The median price of closed single-family home sales in Nassau last month was $837,000. That’s $12,000 less than the September median price of $849,000, but still 6.1 percent higher than the $789,000 median price recorded in Oct. 2024.
In Suffolk, the median price of closed single-family home sales last month was $701,000, which is $19,000 more than the September median price of $720,000 and 4.6 percent higher than the $670,000 median price of Oct. 2024.
Mortgage rates continue to trend lower. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage loan in New York was 6.19 percent as of Monday, according to bankrate.com. That’s down a bit from September, and below the 2024 average rate of 6.7 percent.
Mortgage rates are projected to decline modestly, averaging around 6 percent next year, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. He said that while rates are influenced by more than Federal Reserve decisions alone, broader economic factors are contributing to gradually lower borrowing costs.
“As we go into next year, the mortgage rate will be a little bit better,” Yun said in a NAR statement. “It’s not going to be a big decline, but it will be a modest decline that will improve affordability.”
Nationally, existing home sales are projected to rise by around 14 percent in 2026, according to Yun, though prices are expected to stay firm. He said the expected rebound reflects the easing mortgage rates and improving market stability after several challenging years. Home prices are forecast to increase by 4 percent next year, supported by steady demand and persistent supply shortages.
“Next year is really the year that we will see a measurable increase in sales,” Yun said. “Home prices nationwide are in no danger of declining.”
Low inventory levels, high mortgage rates, and rising home prices have left the U.S. housing market frozen for the past year. But a new Zillow report suggests that the housing market today is actually more active than it was before the pandemic—even with inventory levels bottoming out in late 2023.
Competition has cooled significantly since pandemic peaks, Zillow says, but it’s still hotter than pre-pandemic norms, with homes selling at a faster rate. That’s largely due to a lack of available inventory, Orphe Divounguy, Zillow senior economist, tells Fortune.
“Inventory is slowly increasing, but remains relatively low,” he says. “This means buyers have fewer options and homes are going under contract 50% faster than pre-pandemic norms.” Today’s 6% mortgage rate will “tamp down competition” for houses than when buyers were vying to purchase at sub-4% rates during the pandemic, he adds, but it won’t completely eliminate it.
Although high mortgage rates and home prices are locking out some homebuyers, there are three ways that the housing market is still more active than it was before the pandemic, Zillow argues.
1 – Homes are selling much faster than before the pandemic
Remember the pandemic-era housing market when homes were flying off the market in just a number of days? While today’s market isn’t moving quite that fast, it’s still going at a quicker pace than before 2020.
Listings that sell are going under contract in a median of 30 days, Divounguy says. That’s one day less than last year and 50% faster than the pre-pandemic median of 45 days, he adds. In December 2021, buyers snatched listings in just 13 days.
“Homes are selling quicker than pre-pandemic norms largely due to low inventory levels and pent-up buyer demand,” Divounguy says. But buyers who were “sidelined” by 8% mortgage rates are “likely to resume their search” as rates continue to drop this year, he adds.
2 – Limited inventory means stiffer competition
Around the time that mortgage rates peaked at 8%, existing-home sales plummeted a stunning 15% in September 2023 on a year-over-year basis to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million transactions, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That was the lowest figure since the world economy and U.S. housing market were emerging from the Great Financial Crisis in 2010.
“Although supply has also improved somewhat, changes in mortgage rates have a larger impact on demand than on supply,” Divounguy says. “As a result, competition among buyers remains stiff.”
While purchases are happening at a faster pace than before the pandemic, the lack of supply means that there are fewer housing transactions overall, Divounguy says. In fact, inventory levels are 36% lower than pre-pandemic levels, “a shortfall large enough to keep competition relatively brisk,” according to the Zillow report. That means that homebuyers trying to break into today’s market are up against some pretty stiff competition—and have had to start making concessions to finally get a house.
“People are not entering the market expecting to get everything they want,” Michael Martirena, a real estate agent with Compass Florida, tells Fortune. “This results in bids and offers on less desirable properties and keeps inventory tight at multiple price points.” Plus, nearly 30% of all listings sold above asking price in December 2023, according to Zillow. Only 16% of listings had price cuts, which was the lowest share since April 2022.
3 – Increased home values and mortgage rates
Mortgage rates reached a multi-decade high late last year while home prices increased each month, according to the Case-Shiller index. In turn, the typical mortgage payment was up 7.5% year-over-year in December 2023, according to Zillow.
But what’s even more striking is that the figure is 106.5% higher than the pandemic average. Today, the typical home in the U.S. is $344,000 and has a monthly mortgage payment of $1,790, assuming a 20% down payment, according to Zillow. But now that the Federal Reserve is slowing its roll on more interest rate hikes, mortgage rates are more likely to even out. In turn, this rate lock should loosen its grip on sellers, Divounguy says, bringing more activity back into the market.
“More than one in five homeowners are considering selling, compared to 15% one year ago,” he says. “Homeowners are sitting on massive equity—home values are up 41% nationwide since 2019—and roughly 70% of sellers turn around and purchase another home.”
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Several cities in the greater Phoenix metro area, such as Gilbert and Mesa, have experienced record … [+] high rates of growth in their available housing inventory over the course of the last year.
getty
With continual interest rate hikes made by the Federal Reserve beginning in 2022, housing markets across the United States have been experiencing significant disruptions in activity. And this disruption is particularly noticeable in the levels of available housing inventory. Over the course of one year, from 2022 to 2023, countless American housing markets have seen record high percentage increases in their available for-sale inventory. This build-up of homes for sale is a reflection of a slowdown in many housing markets across the nation.
Based on a list of American cities with populations of 200,000 or more, we analyzed 119 housing markets in terms of the change in their available housing inventory year-over-year. To get a more accurate picture of inventory, rather than using monthly inventory, we used a 12-month average — from March 2022 to February 2023 — for our analysis. All housing data was sourced from Redfin RDFN .
Read on to find out which cities have experienced the biggest growth in their available housing inventory over the last year.
Cities Where Housing Inventory Has Increased the Most
Looking at housing inventory change in percentage terms over the course of one year, the majority of cities that have experienced the largest one-year increase are primarily in the U.S. West and South regions. Aurora, Colorado, had a 12-month average housing inventory of 332 available homes for sale from March 2021 to February 2022. One year later, that 12-month average had risen by 115.6%, to 716 available homes for sale for the 12-month period from March 2022 to February 2023. Out of all the cities analyzed, Aurora’s one-year growth in housing inventory was the greatest.
Below are the top 10 cities that have experienced the greatest increase in housing inventory in the course of the last year:
Aurora, Colorado: 115.6%
North Las Vegas, Nevada: 98.3%
Gilbert, Arizona: 79.4%
Mesa, Arizona: 76.6%
Spokane, Washington: 76.5%
Spring Valley, Nevada: 74%
Port St. Lucie, Florida: 71%
Chandler, Arizona: 66.8%
Enterprise, Nevada: 66%
Henderson, Nevada: 63.4%
It must be said that, in many cases, these housing markets saw their housing inventories rebound to levels that were more common in pre-pandemic years. For example, Aurora’s housing inventory for the 12-month period March 2018 to February 2019 averaged 795 available homes for sale — not far off from its current level of 716 homes. It’s a similar case for North Las Vegas: Its 12-month average housing inventory from March 2022 to February 2023 is 950 available homes for sale; that’s up by 98.3% from 479 available homes for the period March 2021 to February 2022, but its current housing inventory is comparable to the 12-month period March 2017 to February 2018, when housing inventory was 936 available homes for sale.
Below is a table detailing the 12-month average housing inventories for these 10 cities from 2017 to now:
Trends Among Cities With Increasing Housing Inventory
There are some notable correlations between cities that have experienced large one-year increases in inventory and other housing data. For example, in Aurora, 45.9% of active listings have experienced price drops during the 12-month period March 2022 to February 2023. That’s the highest percentage of price drops in the Aurora housing market since 2017. North Las Vegas is similar, witnessing 33.2% of its active listings having price drops for the 12-month period March 2022 to February 2023. That figure is also the highest percentage of price drops since 2017.
Another metric, the median number of days on market before a home is bought up, correlates closely with the housing inventory build-up in these cities. In Aurora, the number of days on market increased from just 5.1 days in the 12-month period March 2021 to February 2022, to 17.3 days for the period March 2022 to February 2023. That’s equal to an increase of 241% in only one year. In North Las Vegas, the number of days on market rose by 119.9% over the same period, from 18.4 days for March 2021 to February 2022, to 40.5 days for March 2022 to February 2023. Gilbert, Arizona, too experienced a doubling of its median days on market: From 21.9 days on market for March 2021 to February 2022, to 44.1 days on market for March 2022 to February 2023 — a one-year increase of 101.1%.
Below is a table detailing the median days on market for the top 10 cities with the greatest growth in their housing inventories:
Table of Top 50 Cities Where Housing Inventory Has Increased the Most
Below you’ll find a table detailing the top 50 cities that experienced the largest one-year growth in their housing inventories. The table makes it very clear that, in geographic terms, the majority of cities are located in the western U.S.:
