The U.S. housing market still needs to gain momentum through 2026, but according to the quarterly CNBC Housing Market Survey, real estate agents say there has been a real shift toward a more balanced market.
Mortgage rates have barely changed in the final quarter of 2025, but home prices are steadily falling. The average interest rate on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell sharply in the third quarter but then stabilized between 6.2% and 6.4% in the fourth quarter, leaving some buyers biding their time and having no incentive to jump in.
There are now early signs that more activity is on the way.
“The buyers I saw were buying based on their life circumstances, whether they were having a baby, moving for work, retiring or downsizing,” said Ashley Rummage, a real estate agent in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Of real estate agents surveyed by CNBC in the fourth quarter, 37.5% said it was a balanced market rather than the buyer’s market they saw in the third quarter. That’s up from 30% in the third quarter and is likely because consumers had less confidence in the economy as job losses mounted.
“The people who were moving and the momentum that we had was definitely slowed down, much, much less by interest rates and more by the intrinsic factors, the cost of living,” said Heather Dell, a real estate agent in Detroit. “Home insurance, car insurance, and utilities and health insurance are the most common objections I hear when a buyer discusses purchasing.”
The CNBC Housing Market Survey is a nationwide survey of randomly selected real estate agents in the United States. Responses for the fourth quarter survey were collected between December 10 and December 17. This quarter, 72 agents shared their insights.
While the majority of agents said it is still a buyer’s market due to lower prices and increased inventory for sale, some agents noted that their buyers and sellers still have very different expectations.
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“Buyers tend to think the market is like 2008 and sellers tend to think the market is closer to 2021 or 2022, and those are diametrically opposed markets and diametrically opposed mindsets,” said John Fragola, a real estate agent in Charleston, South Carolina.
Of course, 2008 was the start of the subprime mortgage crisis, which led to the Great Recession and housing crash, as the market was flooded with distressed homes, giving all the power to buyers. Meanwhile, 2021 came shortly after the start of the Covid pandemic, when a buying spree ensued and inventories fell to record lows, giving sellers all the power.
Equilibrium in the market is now likely to be established due to falling prices.
According to the CNBC survey, 92% said at least one seller lowered the price in the fourth quarter, compared to 89% in the previous quarter. Nearly half of respondents said the majority of their sellers had lowered prices.
“The concessions have gotten bigger, especially in my market,” Rummage said. “Unfortunately, at the start of the year many sellers were still stuck in the 2021 mindset, but as the year went by and their offers were in place, they increasingly came to terms with the fact that they would likely have to make some concessions to close the transaction.”
Although prices are falling, they are still historically high, but buyers seem to be getting used to this being the new normal.
When asked how affordability is impacting their buyers, brokers said fewer buyers exited the market in the fourth quarter than in the previous period and purchases were delayed less. They also made fewer compromises when it came to the size, furnishings and location of the house.
However, price cuts are not particularly pleasant for sellers, and compared to the third quarter, more agents reported having to delist properties.
“I personally had some clients who said, ‘Let’s just take a break, hit the brakes here and we’ll come back to the market in the spring market when there are more buyers,'” Fragola said.
Heading into the new year, 67.8% of agents said they expect revenue to increase in the first quarter despite the slow end to 2025. A full 77% of brokers said that they expected better results for the full year 2026 than in the previous year.
There is more inventory on the market now, and some agents said they believe consumers are adjusting to the current economic situation.
“I think a lot of people are a little more comfortable with the unknown,” Rummage said. “The mood has changed from fear to cautious optimism.”