July’s Home Sales Pace Slowest in 10 Years

SEATTLE – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – Elevated home prices and economic uncertainty – impediments to otherwise unhindered residential sales — are keeping houses on the market longer this summer. In fact, they combined to make July 2025 the slowest middle-of-the-season home sales month in a decade, says a new report from real estate brokerage Redfin.

The document says a typical home that went under contract in July 2025 spent 43 days on the market, up from 35 days in July 2024. That made this year’s waiting period the longest span for any July since 2015.

Actually, July’s duration on market reflects more of a return to normal than a significant slowdown, says Redfin data. Forty-three days roughly matches the national July norm from 2014 to 2016.

A typical house sold in July cost about 1 percent less than its asking price — the biggest July decline since 2020. Also, fewer than a third (28.9 percent) of residences changed hands for more than the final asking price, the lowest number for a July since 2019.

“Both stats indicate that homebuyer competition, at least nationally, has fallen,” says the report.

“Supply is starting to fall because prospective sellers are choosing not to list after seeing their neighbor’s home linger on the market or sell for below the asking price,” said Redfin Senior Economist Asad Khan.

“Some existing sellers are also pulling their homes off the market, opting instead to rent them or hold off on a move altogether—especially if they bought the place at the peak of the pandemic market, and fear losing money.

Rising prices, money doubts, cut into demand

Redfin says homes are taking longer to sell because demand is shrinking due to high homebuying costs and economic uncertainty. Pending home sales fell 1.1 percent month-over-month in July to the lowest seasonally adjusted level since November 2023. Existing-home sales slid to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4,150,266 — the lowest level in nearly a year.

With sales stuck in neutral, supply has been building up, giving buyers more options. But the lack of movement also reduces the sense of urgency.

Active listings of homes for sale in July sat near the highest level in five years, but they did fall 1.1 percent from June, says Redfin. That’s the largest monthly seasonally adjusted drop in roughly two years.

New listings fell 0.4 percent month-over-month to the lowest seasonally adjusted level since March 2024.

Home price growth accelerating

Against this backdrop, the median home sale price rose 1.4 percent year-over-year in July to $443,867, the highest July level on record. By comparison, prices rose 0.9 percent year-over-year in June and 0.7 percent year-over-year in May. This is notable because home price growth was shrinking when 2025 began.

The good news for buyers, says Redfin, is that while home prices are rising, mortgage payments have begun to drop. The average 30-year-fixed rate now sits at 6.58 percent after hitting a high of 6.75 percent in mid-July.

Homebuyer competition easing

Some buyers are backing out of deals after already signing a contract. Roughly 58,000 home-purchase agreements were canceled in July, equal to 15.3 percent of homes committed to a deal that month—the highest July rate in records dating to 2017.

In general, buyers have more negotiating power than they’ve had in recent years because they’re facing less competition and have more homes to choose from. But the balance of power may start to shift back toward sellers if supply continues to shrink.

For now, Redfin agents say it’s critical for sellers to make sure their homes are priced fairly and in good condition if they want to attract buyers. Overpriced homes often take a long time to sell.

“It’s a weird market right now,” said Shauna Pendleton, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Boise, Idaho. “For the most part, it’s crickets. I recently did a $100,000 price drop on my listing that sat on the market for several weeks at over $600,000, only to lure one interested buyer.”

“But there are also pockets of competition,” she said. “I had a fixer-upper listing get seven offers after we priced it aggressively at $320,000.”

July 2025 metro-level highlights

Median sale prices rose most from year-over-year in Cleveland (12.8 percent), Nassau County, N.Y. (7.1 percent) and Indianapolis (7.1 percent). They fell most in Oakland (-6.1 percent), Jacksonville (-3.9 percent) and West Palm Beach, -3.8 percent.
Pending sales rose most in Phoenix (11.2 percent), Austin (6.8 percent) and Houston at 6.1 percent. They fell most in Portland, Ore. (-12.6 percent), Miami (-11.8 percent) and Tampa, -11.7 percent.
New listings rose most in Houston (26.9 percent), Montgomery County, Penn. (7.4 percent) and Cleveland (7.1 percent). They fell most in San Francisco (-19 percent), Jacksonville (-15.6 percent) and Tampa, -13.5 percent.
Active listings rose most in Las Vegas (28.4 percent), Houston (25.5 percent) and Dallas (23.6 percent). They fell in four metros: San Francisco (-11.2 percent), Nassau County (-4.4 percent), Portland, Ore. (-1 percent) and Kansas City, Mo., -0.9%.
Sold above list price: In Newark, 67.2 percent of homes sold above their final list price, the highest share among metros Redfin analyzed. Next came Nassau County (59.9 percent) and Milwaukee (54.3 percent). Lowest shares were in West Palm Beach (6.4 percent), Fort Lauderdale (7.7 percent) and Miami (7.9 percent).

Houston’s July Home Sales

Houston recorded 8,300 single-family home sales in July, a 9.2% increase over the 7,601 home sales in July of 2024, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.

The Houston median home price was down 3.1% to $339,000. The average price was $434,664, which is 1.9% below last year’s level.

Active listings reached an all-time high in July, exceeding 40,000 available homes in the Houston area. This represents a 38.2% increase from the same time last year.

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