Existing home sales in 2025 are tracking around 4.1 million. That’s near the lowest level in three decades. Homeownership has fallen to 65%, down from 69% in 2004.

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It’s a Buyer’s Market: America Has 44% More Home Sellers Than Buyers—a Near-Record Gap

  • There are 600,000 more home sellers than buyers, giving the buyers who are in the market negotiating power.
  • Only five metro areas are seller’s markets, most of which are located in the Northeast. The South and West are home to the strongest buyer’s markets.

There were an estimated 44% more home sellers than buyers in the U.S. housing market in January (or 600,314 more, in numerical terms). That’s up from 30% more a year earlier and represents the second largest gap in records dating back to 2013. The largest gap was in December 2025, when sellers outnumbered buyers by 45%.

New Home Sales Close 2025 with Modest Gains

New home sales ended 2025 on a mixed but resilient note, signaling steady underlying demand despite ongoing affordability and supply constraints. The latest data released today (and delayed because of the government shutdown in fall of 2025) indicate that while month-to-month activity shows a small decline, sales remain stronger than a year ago, signaling that buyer interest in newly built homes has improved. The December NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index showed that 67 percent of builders used sales incentives, the highest percentage post-COVID. Builders offered an average home price reduction of 5 percent during December.

Sales of newly built single-family homes declined 1.7 percent month-over-month in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 745,000 units, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. This represented a 3.8 percent year-over-year increase. An estimated 679,000 homes were sold in 2025, down 1.1 percent from the 2024 rate of 686,000. A new home sale is recorded when a contract is signed or a deposit is accepted, regardless of the stage of construction. The seasonally adjusted annual rate reflects the pace of sales that would occur over a 12-month period if current conditions persisted.