Redfin Reports Near-Record Housing Costs Put a Lid on Pending Sales, Even as Early-Stage Demand Picks Up

March 20, 2025 at 08:00 AM EDT

House hunters are touring homes and applying for mortgages as rates stay below 7%, but prospective buyers aren’t always following through with a purchase

(NASDAQ: RDFN) —The typical U.S. homebuyer’s monthly housing payment is $2,793, just a few dollars shy of the all-time high, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. Housing payments are sky-high because sale prices keep rising and mortgage rates remain high.

The median home-sale price rose 3.3% year over year during the four weeks ending March 16, and the weekly average mortgage rate is 6.65%, its lowest level since mid-December but still more than double pandemic-era lows.

Lack of affordability is suppressing homebuyer demand, even as we get tantalizingly close to spring. Pending home sales are down 5.2%, on par with the annual declines Redfin has seen for the last two months.

But there are signals that house hunters are stepping off the sidelines, even if they’re not following through with a purchase yet. Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index—a seasonally adjusted measure of home tours and other buying services from Redfin agents—hit its highest level in three months, and ShowingTime data shows that home tours are rising faster this year than in 2024. Additionally, seasonally adjusted mortgage-purchase applications are sitting at their highest level in six weeks. Rising demand could translate into an improvement in pending sales in the coming months, especially if mortgage rates decline more. Rates could decline if inflation eases and we see stronger evidence of weak economic data that point toward a recession.

“Some prospective buyers and sellers are still waiting for rates to drop and others are holding off because they’re worried about the economy and losing their job. But others are jumping back in because it’s clear the market isn’t going back to where it was in 2020,” said Heather Mahmood-Corley, a Redfin Premier agent in Phoenix. “Overall, it feels more like a buyer’s market than a seller’s market. I’m telling sellers their home needs to look like a model house, and it probably needs to be priced lower than they think. Even though costs are high, it’s not a bad time to buy: For listings that sit on the market a long time, many buyers are able to successfully negotiate.”

On the supply side, new listings are up 5.5% year over year, the biggest increase in six weeks.

For Redfin economists’ takes on the housing market, please visit Redfin’s “From Our Economists” page.

Leading indicators

Indicators of homebuying demand and activity
	Value (if applicable)	Recent change	Year-over-year change	Source
Daily average 30-year fixed mortgage rate	6.76% (March 19)	Up from 6.7% two weeks earlier, but still near lowest level since December	Down from 7.11%	Mortgage News Daily
Weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate	6.65% (week ending March 13)	Near lowest level since mid-December	Down from 6.74%	Freddie Mac
Mortgage-purchase applications (seasonally adjusted)		Essentially unchanged (up 0.1%) from a week earlier (as of week ending March 14)	Up 6%	Mortgage Bankers Association
Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index (seasonally adjusted)		Highest level since mid-December (as of week ending March 16)	Up 5%	Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index, a measure of tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents
Touring activity		Up 35% from the start of the year (as of March 18)	At this time last year, it was up 30% from the start of 2024	ShowingTime, a home touring technology company
Google searches for “home for sale”		Up 8% from a month earlier (as of March 17)	Up 10%	Google Trends

Key housing-market data

U.S. highlights: Four weeks ending March 16, 2025 Redfin’s national metrics include data from 400+ U.S. metro areas, and are based on homes listed and/or sold during the period. Weekly housing-market data goes back through 2015. Subject to revision.
	Four weeks ending March 16, 2025	Year-over-year change	Notes
Median sale price	$383,475	3.3%
Median asking price	$423,500	6.6%
Median monthly mortgage payment	$2,793 at a 6.65% mortgage rate	4.8%	$6 shy of all-time high hit during the 4 weeks ending April 28, 2024
Pending sales	80,277	-5.2%
New listings	94,113	5.5%
Active listings	953,851	11%	Smallest increase in a year
Months of supply	4.1	+0.6 pts.	4 to 5 months of supply is considered balanced, with a lower number indicating seller’s market conditions
Share of homes off market in two weeks	36%	Down from 40%
Median days on market	50	+7 days
Share of homes sold above list price	23.4%	Down from 26%
Average sale-to-list price ratio	98.4%	Down from 98.7%

Metro-level highlights: Four weeks ending March 16, 2025 Redfin’s metro-level data includes the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Select metros may be excluded from time to time to ensure data accuracy.
	Metros with biggest year-over-year increases	Metros with biggest year-over-year decreases	Notes
Median sale price	Milwaukee (12.2%) Nassau County, NY (10.8%) Anaheim, CA (9.9%) Providence, RI (9.8%) Cleveland (9.2%)	Jacksonville, FL (-3.7%) Tampa, FL (-2.8%) Austin, TX (-2.5%) Atlanta (-1.3%) Fort Worth, TX (-0.3%) San Antonio (-0.2%)	Declined in 6 metros
Pending sales	Los Angeles (4.2%) Sacramento, CA (3.3%) Montgomery County, PA (2.5%) Seattle (2.3%) Anaheim, CA (1.3%)	Fort Lauderdale, FL (-17.8%) Warren, MI (-16.1%) Detroit (-14.3%) Houston (-13.6%) Nassau County, NY (-13%)	Increased in 8 metros
New listings	San Jose, CA (29.5%) Phoenix (26%) Sacramento, CA (24.1%) Denver (20.8%) Los Angeles (19%)	Detroit (-12.5%) Warren, MI (-12%) Newark, NJ (-7.7%) Milwaukee (-7.2%) Nassau County, NY (-5.5%)	Declined in 10 metros

To view the full report, including charts and metro-level data, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-high-housing-costs-stall-pending-sales

About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, and title insurance services. We run the country's #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we've saved customers more than $1.8 billion in commissions. We serve approximately 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.

Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin's press center, click here.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250320193918/en/

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Redfin Reports Near-Record Housing Costs Put a Lid on Pending Sales, Even as Early-Stage Demand Picks Up

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