1997 HEB Receipt Reveals Shocking Price Increase
After Zoe Dippel found a 1997 HEB receipt for 122 items totaling $155, she decided to compare current grocery prices to prices in the 1990s.
Home sales hit a new low in 2025 as economic uncertainty hit the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors announced on January 14 that Americans sold 4.06 million existing homes that year. This figure includes initial sales forecasts for December and is subject to revision. But for now, the unrounded data shows the 2025 total is thousands of dollars less than 2024, making it the lowest sales since 1995.
“There was some hope at the beginning of the year, but it’s really tapered off since[Emancipation Day],” said Thelma Hepp, chief economist at real estate data provider Kotality, referring to President Donald Trump’s shock and awe tariff announcement in mid-April that led to a massive sell-off in financial markets.
“Mortgage rates rose after that announcement, home sales flattened, and then nothing happened,” Hepp added.
In fact, the housing market of 2025 was characterized by the failure of many activities.
In mid-fall, homes took about 63 days to hit the market, marking the second consecutive year in which homes took longer to sell than in previous years. Delistings (where homeowners put their properties up for sale and then take them off the market) are up 50% compared to 2024, suggesting that buyers and sellers are unable to agree on the right price for many properties.
After all, 2025 ended on a high note. Sales rose 5.1% in December, the best month in nearly three years. That was the cap for the fourth quarter, when mortgage rates gradually fell, price increases slowed and buyers began to flock. The median price of existing homes sold that month was $405,400, up just 0.4% from a year ago.
Still, 2024 ended on a strong note, and around this time last year, many people in the housing industry were looking forward to the spring sales season in 2025.
Hepp now expects existing home sales to increase 5% next year due to continued declines in mortgage rates and slowing home price growth.
On January 14th, Realtor.com released a report showing that there are now more mortgage balances with interest rates above 6% than below 3%. The report said that while some “rate lock-ins” continue to keep many households from listing their properties, a “gradual reset” is occurring as more Americans take advantage of higher interest rates or enter the market for the first time.
Hepp says his prediction is correct, although he knows there is always the possibility of something unexpected happening to financial markets and the economy.
“It’s my job to know better,” she told USA TODAY.
