Storm clouds are brewing in the spring home buying market.
The 1.15 million available homes for sale nationwide in March was the most since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, according to Zillow. Last month’s figure coincides with home value growth of just 0.2% in March from the prior month, the slowest spring growth from one year to the next since 2018.
Additionally, the real estate platform reported price cuts on more than 23% of its listings in March, the highest share for the month since 2018.
“Buyers — especially first-timers without equity to pour into their down payment — continue to struggle with affordability and now are facing even higher levels of uncertainty,” said Zillow Chief Economist Skylar Olsen in a press release.
President Trump’s tariff negotiations have sent mortgage rates on a roller coaster ride, with double-digit fluctuations in recent weeks and the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage sitting closer to 7% as of Thursday. That has dampened the traditional spring home buying surge the industry anticipated would prove more fruitful than recent years.
Sellers last month put more homes on the market than were sold, according to Zillow, with 265,000 listings moving into a pending sale versus 375,000 new properties on the market.
Other market research posted Thursday painted a similarly difficult start to spring.
Redfin indicated annual median home price growth of 2.6% for the four weeks ended April 13, alongside the number of total homes for sale rising 12.3% compared to the same time last year. The real estate brokerage said a third of Americans are delaying plans to make a major purchase over Trump’ s tariff policies.
Fannie Mae, in a brief update to its Home Price Index, also reported home prices rising just 1.4% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the end of 2024. While prices are still rising on an annual basis, the first quarter’s 5.3% annual growth was just a tick above the prior 5.2% mark.
A Remax report found silver linings in the housing market, despite sales down 1.4% in March against the year ago period. The brokerage attributed a 23% surge in sales in March from February to that growing inventory.
“With a relatively good supply of homes for sale, and rates holding with signs of some improvement, many buyers are finding current market conditions to be the most favorable they’ve seen in the past few years,” said Remax Holdings CEO Erik Carlson in a statement.
Homes sold in March had a median sales price of $435,000, according to the company, an average increase of $8,000 from February.
Most major U.S. housing markets are still seeing home value increases, according to Thursday’s reports, although inventory is skyrocketing in some locales. Remax discovered active listings soaring 25.3% in Washington, D.C. from February to March; Zillow reported a 35% year-over-year listing increase for the city.
The nation’s capital could be feeling the impact of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting measures. Although hiring in February was up nationwide, the numbers may not reflect the local impact of widespread government cuts and other tariff-induced variability.
