AUSTIN – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – House hunters intent on continuing their search for a suitably livable domicile this summer may benefit from some timely financial circumstances that have just come to light.
Realtor.com’s just-released Housing Trends Report for June 2026 points out that the asking price of for-sale dwellings fell 2.5% year-over-year — the steepest annual decline recorded in Realtor.com data banks since 2017. June was also the eighth consecutive month of price declines.
At the same time, pending home sales rose 3.7% year-over-year, representing the seventh straight month of growth. And for the first time in 26 months, homes spent no more time on market than they did a year earlier — a further indication that buyers with the inclination to purchase a residence are making their plans known as the market rebalances.
“Eight straight months of falling prices and seven straight months of rising pending sales are not a contradiction,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “And they have to be considered together to get a full picture of what’s happening in housing right now.”
“Sellers are reading market conditions and are pricing accordingly from the start rather than listing high and cutting later,” said Hale, “and buyers are taking note and making bids. This is a welcome sign that we are in a functioning market.”
The national median list price of a typical dwelling was $430,000 in June, essentially flat from May, but down 2.5% from a year ago. The price per square foot – a factor in determining changes in the varying sizes of homes on the market — fell 2.1% year-over-year and is declining in 33 of the top 50 metros.
The share of listings with a price reduction came in at 18.8%, down 1.9 percentage points from a year ago and up slightly from May’s 17.5%.
Prices Fall at Record Pace
The regional picture reveals two very different housing markets, says the report. Year-over-year median list price declines ranged from -4.0% in the West to -2.5% in the South and -1.0% in the Northeast while the Midwest crossed back to flat (0.0%). When adjusting for home size, price per square foot rose in the Midwest (+1.5%) and Northeast (+0.9%) while the South (-3.2%) and West (-1.6%) continued to slip.
The longer view tells a more diverse tale. National median list prices peaked at $449,000 in June 2022. Four years later, they are down 4.2% across the U.S.
But the regional difference is noticeable. Prices are down 7.3% in the West and 3.5% in the South since that peak while the Midwest is up 10% and the Northeast is up 12.6%.
Among the top 50 metros, prices since June 2022 are down in 28 and up in 22, the report says.
“The two Americas story in housing is now four years in the making,” said Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com. “In the West and South, prices gave ground back as affordability limits were tested. In the Midwest and Northeast, supply stayed tight enough and demand strong enough that prices kept climbing even through a historic rate shock.”
Pending Sales Up for Seventh Straight Month
The number of listings in pending status (known as ‘under contract’) rose 3.7% year-over-year in June, extending the growth streak to seven consecutive months — the longest such run since the time period from December 2020 through June 2021, the report says.
There’s no indication the hike in pending sales is masking a wave of broken deals. Contract cancellations in April and May came in at 6.9% of pending sales, modestly below the 7.3% rate a year ago.
Taken together, the data pushes back on the fear that the rise in pending sales may give way to deals that are about to fall apart. “Homes are going under contract — and staying there,” says the report. In fact, it adds: “There are no signs of a repeat of last summer’s delisting surge. Delistings were down nearly 10% year-over-year in June.”
New listings rose 2.4% year over year to 463,480, led by strong gains in the Northeast (+12.6%) and supported by modest growth in the Midwest (+1.0%), South (+1.0%) and West (+0.2%).
Inventory Still Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
Active inventory reached 1,102,615 in June, up 4.1% from May and 1.9% from a year ago. Year-over-year growth decelerated slightly from 2.2% last month, extending a gradual cooling trend that has impacted the market since last spring. Nationwide inventory remains 11.3% below typical pre-COVID (2017–2019) levels, a slightly wider gap than the 10.4% shortfall recorded in May.
Inventory gains were led by the Northeast (+8.5% year-over-year) and Midwest (+7.3%) while the South (-0.1%) and West (+0.3%) remained nearly flat. Among the top 50 metros in the U.S., 35 recorded year-over-year inventory growth. The most significant hikes were in Louisville (+28.7%), Buffalo (+27.7%) and Seattle (+20.6%).
A Meaningful Milestone
The median home spent 53 days on the market in June – the identical number of days recorded for homes during both June of 2025 and June of 2019.
That tally ended a streak of 26 consecutive months in which homes sold more slowly than the prior year — a “notable milestone,” the report says, “suggesting that the market’s deceleration has fully normalized.”
Also, the median priced home is now spending the same length of time on market as it did during the pre-pandemic era.
Realtor.com’s report says the extent of a home’s time on market is lower than a year ago in the Northeast (-2 days), where fresh inventory appears to be energizing transactions in historically tight markets.
Days on market took a modest upward swing in the Midwest (+3 days) and West (+2 days) and held flat in the South. At the metro level, time on market fell the most in Jacksonville (-8 days) and Richmond, Va. (-6 days), while Boston, Memphis and Oklahoma City each saw increases of six days.
Looking Ahead to July
“July is when the market traditionally takes its foot off the gas. Spring listings age, buyer urgency fades, activity slows,” said Krimmel. “June already shows the first signs of a slight seasonal slowdown: price cuts ticked up to 18.5% of current listings, and new listings were flat from last month even as they remained above last year.”
“So far, the leading indicators for July are holding, so we do not expect the market to stall out like it did last summer.”
July 5, 2026, Realty News Report Copyright 2026
Feature image: Photo by Realty News Report Copyright 2026.
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