Homebuyers have gained purchasing leverage over the course of 2025 amid easing home price pressures and rising for-sale inventory.
The number of active listings was 15.3% higher year over year in October, according to Realtor.com’s monthly housing report, and the number of homes for sale topped 1 million.
However, the pace of new-listings growth has slowed for six consecutive months, heralding a slowdown of the post-pandemic inventory recovery, the report also finds. Nationwide, housing inventory remained 13.2% lower than typical 2017 to 2019 levels.
Despite the slowdown, inventory increased in all major U.S. regions in October, expanding 17% in the South, 17.4% in the West, 12.2% in the Midwest and 8.9% in the Northeast.
Newly listed homes also increased, up 5.2% in the South, 4.2% in the West, 4.8% in the Midwest and 3.3% in the Northeast.
At the metro level, 10 of the largest 50 metros now exceed their pre-pandemic inventories by 25% or more, all of which are in the South or West, led by Denver (57% higher than pre-pandemic levels), San Antonio (51.9%) and Austin, Texas (44.9%).
Hartford, Conn., Chicago and Providence, R.I., lead the list of 17 metros among the 50 largest with inventories that lag their pre-pandemic levels by a margin of 25% or wider, with 74%, 56.9% and 54.5% fewer homes on the market, respectively, than 2017 to 2019 levels.
Even as median list prices inched slightly higher last month, one-fifth of listings nationally had a price reduction in October, a 1.6% year over year rise that reflects cooling homebuying activity despite higher overall inventories.
The typical home spent 63 days on the market in October, five days longer than a year ago. Time on market increased five days in the South, eight days in the West, two days in the Midwest and two days in the Northeast.
Realtor.com calls the longer times on market a “key contributor” to the widespread annual increases in active home listings.
Only in the West, however, are new listings selling at a slower pace than pre-pandemic October norms, selling 11 days slower than 2017 to 2019 levels. Homes are selling one day faster in the South, 14 days faster in the Midwest and 19 days faster in the Northeast.
With homes turning over at their slowest pace in decades last month, cautious buyer behavior in October coincides with the market entering the typically slower sales season, leaving sellers with unsold homes with the choice to delist or let their listings stagnate.
