According to the Realtor.com January Monthly Housing Report, January saw a positive shift in seller activity despite recent hikes in mortgage rates, with the number of newly listed homes increasing 37.5% month-over-month. Sacramento, CA (+31.7%), Phoenix (+27.3%), and Seattle, WA (+24.7%), saw the biggest increases in newly listed homes this month compared to the same period last year among the top 50 metro areas.
“The shift in seller activity could mark a turning point in the high mortgage rate-induced standoff between buyers and sellers,” said Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com. “The uptick is likely due to some residual benefit from fall’s lower mortgage rates, which could fade. But drivers such as the need for families to adapt to life changes and the easing of the lock-in effect, could bring more movement from sellers by year’s end.”
The number of newly listed houses was 10.8% higher than the previous year, up from a 0.9% increase in December. This puts the number of new listings at its highest January level since 2021 and indicates that sellers are becoming more interested in the market. The percentage of mortgage holders with a rate below 6% dropped to 83% from 88% a year earlier, according to a new Realtor.com analysis. By the end of the year, that percentage is predicted to drop to 75%, according to the 2025 Realtor.com Housing Forecast.
U.S. Buyers & Sellers Thaw Alongside Winter Weather
Additionally, for the fifteenth consecutive month, annual inventory increased, with 24.6% more homes for sale on an average day in January than at the same time in 2024. Denver (+54.8%), Las Vegas (+49.4%), and Tucson, AZ (+45.0%), saw the largest increases in active listings year-over-year among the most active markets, while New York (+0.3%), Hartford, CT (+1.8%), and Milwaukee (+5.0%) saw the smallest increases.
January 2025 Housing Metrics – National
| Metric | Change over January 2024 | Change over January 2019 |
| Median listing price | -2.2% (to $400,500) | +38.4 % |
| Active listings | +25.3 % | -25.3 % |
| New listings | +10.8 % | -18.0 % |
| Median days on market | +5 days (to 73 days) | -8 days |
| Share of active listings with price reductions | +0.9 percentage points (to 15.6%) | -0.4 percentage points |
| Median list price per sq. ft. | +1.2 % | +54.9 % |
Not only are there more listings, but sellers are also lowering their pricing. Compared to the previous year, the percentage of postings with price reductions increased once again. In fact, compared to January 2024, when 14.7% of merchants lowered their prices, 15.6% of sellers did so in January.
Fascinatingly, three Florida markets—Jackson (24.3%), Tampa (24.8%), and Orlando (22.3%)—are in the top five with the largest percentage of price reductions. The top five markets with the largest proportion of price decreases were completed by Phoenix (25.5%) and Portland, OR (22.1%), in addition to the Florida cities.
Which Regions Are Closest to Closing the Inventory Gap?
While the Midwest and Northeast suffer, the South and West are getting closer to closing the inventory gap. Each of the four areas continued to reduce the inventory gap in January, but the South and West are by far in the lead. The number of listings increased by 31.0% in the West and 27.2% in the South. Although they nevertheless recorded improvements, the Midwest (+16.8%) and Northeast (+7.8%) lagged behind.
The inventory gap is also the smallest in the South (-10.0%) and West (-13.3%) when comparing inventory levels to pre-pandemic (2017-2019) levels. This contrasts sharply with the Midwest, where inventory is still down 43.6% from pre-pandemic levels, and the Northeast, where the gap is even greater at 58.1%.
The top three metros that saw the highest increases in inventory growth this January were:
- Denver (+54.8%)
- Las Vegas (+49.4%)
- Tucson (+45.0%)
January 2025 Regional Statistics:
| Region | Active Listing Count YoY | New Listing Count YoY | Median Listing Price YoY | Median Listing Price Per SF YoY | Median Days on Market YoY (Days) | Price-Reduced Share YoY (Percentage Points) |
| Midwest | 16.8% | 10.7% | -0.7% | 2.6% | 2 | +1.2 pp |
| Northeast | 7.8% | 4.5% | -0.9% | 2.5% | 0 | +0.0 pp |
| South | 27.2% | 10.6% | -1.8% | 0.0% | 6 | +0.9 pp |
| West | 31.0% | 21.7% | -1.4% | 1.2% | 5 | +1.9 pp |
While January saw the 15th straight month of yearly inventory expansion—with 24.6% more homes for sale on an average day than at the same time in 2024—this is a significant change from December, when growth was up just 22.0% year-over-year and broke a five-month trend of falling growth. Even while January’s inventory is undoubtedly getting better, it is still 24.8% below than average levels from 2017 to 2019.
The median list price decreased 1.8% in the South, 1.4% in the West, 0.9% in the Northeast, and 0.7% in the Midwest in January compared to the same month the previous year. Price-per-square-foot growth, however, was flat in the South, 2.6% in the Midwest, 2.5% in the Northeast, and 1.2% in the West when the mix of properties on the market was taken into account. The largest increases in median list prices among large metro areas occurred in Cleveland (+11.3%), Baltimore (+6.8%), and Milwaukee (+6.0%).
In the meantime, the price of homes listed before the epidemic has increased significantly in all 50 major cities. The price per square foot growth rate in the top 50 metro areas varied from 6.0% to 62.3% when compared to December 2019.
The markets with the biggest price increases for sellers were:
- Boston (+49.7%)
- Riverside, CA (+50.1%)
- Memphis (+62.3% vs January 2019)
The markets with the lowest returns were:
- Minneapolis (+11.6%)
- Detroit (+9.7%)
- San Francisco (+6.0%)
The percentage of properties for sale with price reductions was up 1.9 percentage points in the West, 0.9 percentage points in the South, and 1.2 percentage points in the Midwest compared to the same period last year. The percentage of price decreases in 41 of the 50 largest metro areas increased from 26 in December to 41 in January of previous year. Grand Rapids (+4.8 percentage points), Providence (+5.4 percentage points), and Portland (+10.5 percentage points) had the biggest increases.
January saw a 1.8% increase in the number of properties under contract but not yet sold (pending listings), which is still far less than the 7.4% spike in December. Mortgage rates in January were, on average, 25 basis points higher than in December, which is at least partly to blame for this slowdown. Even though rates are much higher now than they were only a few months ago, our 2025 prediction indicates that home sales should increase by a modest 1.5% in 2025 as time and lower rates work to break the “lock-in” effect that has held back sales this year.
Including properties under contract but not yet sold, the overall number of homes for sale grew 17.1% over the previous year, marking the 14th consecutive month of yearly growth. This represents a modest decrease from 17.5% last month.
To read the full report, including more data, charts, and methodology, click here.
