Many potential homebuyers are discouraged as Freddie Mac mortgage rates have crept back up near 6.5%.
But in my years of reporting on the housing market, I’ve learned that there’s a lot more to home affordability than mortgage rates. We also need to consider home prices, which are impacted by several factors, including inventory and buyer competition.
The latest weekly housing market report from real estate technology company Redfin, which presents data from the previous week, showed how the market has steadily shifted over the last few years — and there’s some good news for buyers as the home-buying season heats up.
Median home prices are relatively tame
I looked at Redfin’s weekly housing market data for the last four-week period, or Mar. 2-29. The median new listing price for this period was $424,975, a year-over-year increase of 2.47%.
The median sale price was $391,000, up 2% since this time last year. While a price increase may seem like bad news, historical data is everything.
During this period in 2025 and 2024, year-over-year median sale prices had risen by 2.83% and 4.5%, respectively. Yes, home prices are going up, but they’re inclining more slowly than the past couple of years.
What’s the difference between the listing and sales prices? The median listing price refers to the cost of houses put on the market in that four-week period. The median sales price is the final amount that homes sold for at closing in the same timeframe.
Related: Redfin reveals change in home sales, housing market
A few years ago, the main reason for the disparity between those two numbers was that houses were selling for much higher than the listing price. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. was largely a seller’s market, and buyer demand led to bidding wars that drove up the final sale price.
Now, it’s the opposite. The difference mostly lies in sellers cutting home prices after listing them.
According to the Realtor.com March 2026 Monthly Housing Report, 16.2% of home listings experienced price cuts in March. While that’s significant, it isn’t as drastic as 2025. Year-over-year price cuts were down 1.2%.
The Realtor.com data revealed that price cuts were most common in the South (18.4%) and West (17.3%).
Homes are selling more quickly than last year
The weekly Redfin data showed that homes’ median days on the market for the last four-week period has decreased. The last three periods, the median number of days a house was on the market was 63 and 60, hitting 56.5 last week. Now, the median is 53.25 days.
This is still 5.75 days longer than the same period in 2025. However, it marks good news for sellers: The number of “stale listings” has decreased since February.
A recent Redfin report revealed that over half of homes for sale in February were “stale listings,” meaning they had been on the market for at least 60 days before going under contract with a buyer. But Redfin’s latest data showed the median age of inventory finally dropping below 60 days over the last couple of weeks.
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The number of properties that went off the market in two weeks or less increased during this last four-week period. This refers to homes that went under contract, not ones that were pulled off the market by sellers.
The share steadily climbed throughout March and has hit 42.3%. This is a year-over-year increase of 2.3%. It’s also up 0.2% since 2024 and is exactly the same as this period in 2023.
So, although homes are generally selling faster than last March, the numbers haven’t changed much in the last few years overall.
How Redfin’s data impacts homebuyers
The weekly Redfin data gives hopeful homebuyers insights into what to expect as they begin house hunting. Thankfully, there are several positive takeaways for buyers this week.
- The rate of home price increases has slowed down. For the most part, buyers don’t have to worry about skyrocketing prices like they did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Median sale prices were lower than listing prices because quite a few sellers have cut listing prices. If a property has been on the market for a long time, you’re more likely to be able to negotiate a lower price.
- Price cuts depend on your local real estate market. Realtor.com data showed that slashes were more common in the West and South, but less so in the Northeast and Midwest.
- Houses have been selling more quickly as 2026 progresses, but the rate of sale is slower than or equal to years past. So, competition isn’t necessarily increasing — and this gives you more power as a buyer.
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