New research from Zillow shows that the spring housing market is heating up the fastest in locations where buyers finally have choices.
Zillow said it’s a trend that could help explain why sales still trail pre-pandemic norms, even as individual listings sell at similar speeds.
According to Zillow, Austin leads all major metros in both annual sales growth (20%) and inventory added over pre-pandemic norms (52%). Notably, Zillow said that among the top-10 markets for year-over-year sales growth, six have more inventory than before the pandemic.
After years of low supply, Zillow said that markets with restocked shelves are seeing stronger sales growth.
It said that construction boomed across the Sun Belt and activity slowed in many markets as they went through a transition period. Now those same markets with an abundance of options for buyers are seeing recovering sales, with incomes more in line with prices.
Having more homes on the market is helping the market function again, Zillow noted.
Money Going Farther
Buyers’ money goes further in this housing market than they did last year, Zillow reported. At the national level a typical monthly mortgage payment is 3.4% lower than April 2025 and sales are slightly higher nationwide, up 2.3% in April compared to last year, Zillow said.
The online brokerage noted that the rising costs of everything else are one limiting factor, straining budgets and pausing major purchases.
It said that inventory is another. There were 3.7% more active listings in April compared to the year prior, but inventory remains 18.7% below historical norms, Zillow noted.
In those areas that responded to the surge in demand by building additional housing, inventory has recovered faster, Zillow said. Housing inventory now exceeds pre-pandemic norms in 19 of the 50 most populous U.S. metros, with concentrations in the South and West, the brokerage noted.
Now, those metros with the most restored inventory are generally where sales are trending upward, Zillow noted.
Downward Pressure
And, higher inventory tends to put downward pressure on prices, Zillow said.
Where income growth has outpaced price growth in recent years, housing affordability also has improved most, Zillow said. Compared to a year ago, the typical monthly mortgage payment has dropped 9.8% in Austin, 7.4% in Dallas, 7% in Denver, 6.2% in Raleigh and 6% in San Antonio.
Those savings are big when compared to the rest of the country, Zillow said. Nationwide, the pace of home sales at the listing level is close to pre-pandemic norms
The median age of inventory is one day less and listings that do go pending typically do so one day faster than in 2018-2019, Zillow reported. It said that the big differences are sales totals, inventory and new listings, which are down 18%, 19% and 16%, respectively, in April.
