WSJ Your Money Briefing - There Are Now Half a Million More Home Sellers Than Buyers

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

House hunters have struggled with mortgage rates above 6.5%, stubbornly high home prices and low inventory — but now, they may finally have the upper hand. Wall Street Journal reporter Nicole Friedman joins host Julia Carpenter to talk about what the changing number of buyers and sellers means for today’s housing market.  Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Now buyers can maybe go see the home two or three times. They can think about it. They can come back and then they have a lot more power to negotiate right now. We'll talk with Wall Street Journal reporter Nicole Friedman about buyers finally having the upper hand and what it means for house hunters and homeowners alike. That's after the break. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders.

Shop now at NoFrills.ca. For years, house hunters have struggled with rising home prices and low inventory. But finally, things are changing. What does it mean for potential buyers to seize this long awaited advantage? WSJ reporter Nicole Friedman joins me to talk more. Nicole, you've reported so many different stories about just how few homes there are for house hunters. And now that's changing? Yes, the market is really changing right now. And for years, as you said, it has really been a seller's market. There have just been not enough homes for sale,

and so buyers have had to compete in bidding wars and really rush to make a decision in order to get a home as soon as it's listed on the market. And now we're really seeing the inventory of homes for sale is climbing. There has been more new home construction in recent years and sellers who need to sell and have been waiting for the market to get better, for mortgage rates to go down, can't keep waiting. People have had another baby or they got married or they got divorced or they need to relocate for a job. There are all sorts of life reasons why people need to move and sellers are listing their homes on the market.

But buyers are priced out. Home prices are still near record highs, mortgage rates are close to 7%, and so the divide between what's on the market for sale and what buyers can afford is still pretty big, which means that more homes are sitting on the market for longer. And that's leading to this increase in inventory that homes are kind of piling up. So I know from my own apartment hunt that real estate people talk in terms like buyer's market and seller's market. Which one are we seeing now? So it really depends where in the country you are, but generally looking nationally,

the market is transitioning from a seller's market into at least a balanced market, if not a buyer's market. And this is a big change. So certainly in the southeast and southwest, it is a buyer's market, whereas in the northeast and Midwest, there's still not enough a buyer's market. Whereas in the Northeast and Midwest, there's still not enough homes on the market. And so those areas are still more competitive. We're still seeing homes selling more quickly,

a little bit more competition, but the inventory is rising everywhere. And so even those faster markets in the Northeast and Midwest, they're starting to slow down too. And nationally, an analysis by Redfin says that there in April were almost half a million more sellers than buyers. And so that really shows the imbalance right now that there's more homes on the market than there are people who are looking and able to buy right now.

The most competitive markets are in the Northeast. The Redfin analysis says that the market with the most buyers over sellers right now is Newark, New Jersey. And we've seen that for a while now, that New Jersey is very competitive, Connecticut, parts of New England, that those markets still just don't have enough inventory to satisfy the demand. On the flip side, the market that Redfin found had the most sellers over buyers is Miami.

And a lot of the slowest moving markets right now are in Florida and Texas, where there's been a lot of new construction, so there's more inventory that's been built there in the last few years, and right now there's just a lot more homes on the market, which is causing the market to really slow down. And millennials and other young house hunters

have had such a hard time gaining a foothold in this market and breaking into home ownership. Does this shift mean that they finally have their shot? So yes and no. Definitely it is easier to be a first time home buyer right now because the market's just not moving as quickly, which means that you have more time to make a decision, which is super important instead of a couple of years ago

having to go to a home, spend 15 minutes touring it and maybe put in an offer while you're standing in the living room above listing price, which is terrifying. Now buyers can maybe go see the home two or three times. They can think about it, they can come back, and then they have a lot more power to negotiate right now. So buyers can put in offers under listing price, they can ask for repairs, they can ask for concessions like the seller, maybe helping them pay for their closing costs. And so definitely it is an easier time to be a buyer and that helps give first time home buyers who might have a harder time competing a

leg up. But it's still an expensive time to buy a home. Home prices are still high, mortgage rates are high, and so it's only an advantage to those first time home buyers, those millennials that have the money that can afford to buy a home in this market. And in a lot of markets, it is still cheaper right now to rent than to own. And so depending on how long somebody wants to stay

in their home and what their goals are and what their life looks like right now, for a lot of people, it still makes sense to keep renting and see where the market goes from here. We know from your story, which is linked in our show notes, that we have this mismatch between buyers and sellers. What does that mean for both sides going forward? So basic supply and demand would tell you that when there's more sellers than buyers, prices should go down. And so that is the big question right now that everybody is watching

is what's going to happen to home prices. And some economists are saying that they expect by the end of the year a slight decline in prices. Other economists are saying they expect declines in certain regions, definitely in the South and Texas and Florida, but maybe not a national decline. And so that market right now really just needs to find its new equilibrium. What is the price point that would kind of balance buyers and sellers? And this summer and fall is going to be really important to determine where that new normal is. That's WSJ reporter Nicole Friedman.

And that's it for your money briefing. This episode was produced by Ariana Asparu and Coleman Standifer with supervising producer Melanie Roy. I'm Julia Carpenter for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening.