The median list price for existing homes for sale was 2% lower year over year in February but 0.9% higher than January, according to new data released by Realtor.com, as home prices continue to soften in response to fragmented purchase demand.

Though the listings platform says inventory distortions and a slow pace of sales continued to drive overall price behavior last month, the trajectory for future inventory gains has acquired a degree of uncertainty with listing momentum slowing through the last half of 2025.

Homes spent a median of 70 days on the market in February, about four days longer than last February and the 23rd straight month of slowing sales pace on an annual basis.

Remarkably, however, homes were selling eight days faster than pre-pandemic norms last month, helped by borrowing costs that have been near multiyear lows for a series of weeks.

“As we move toward the spring buying season with mortgage rates near 3.5-year lows,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, “a key question is whether this thaw spurs more buyers or more sellers.”

The variable she believes will carry the water for spring and summer sales remains the speed of additional inventory recovery. With mortgage rate lock-in effects well anchored to start the year, delistings as a share of new listings rose to 32% in January to comprise 7% of all active listings nationwide.

Amid a U.S. housing supply shortage that worsened in 2025 from year-before levels, active listings remained 16.8% below typical 2017 to 2019 levels in the second month of 2026, slightly improved from the 17.2% pre-pandemic deficit in January.

At the metro level, 43 of the 50 largest U.S. metro markets saw inventory growth from a year ago, with the sharpest growth in Seattle, which had 38.5% more listings in February, followed by 27.3% more listings in Louisville, Ky., and 24.8% more in San Jose, Calif.

While metros like Denver, San Antonio, Seattle and Austin, Texas, now have at least 50% more homes for sale than before the COVID-19 pandemic, seven markets including Hartford, Conn., and Providence, R.I., remain more than 50% below pre-2020 inventory levels.

Amid seasonal slowdowns and weeks of inclement weather, homebuyers have been slow to emerge in 2026, though purchase applications gained momentum in the last week of February, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Slow demand led to an estimated 44% more sellers than buyers on the market nationwide in January, Redfin says.