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Home price growth across the country has slowed, and it’s probably not a happy situation for buyers sitting on the sidelines in a market that remains unaffordable, or for owners who just a few years ago saw their neighbors selling for big bucks.
Pricing changes vary by different data providers. Cotality, a real estate data analytics provider, predicts the national average growth rate from September 2024 to September 2025 will be 1.2%, lower than earlier this year. National brokerage firm Redfin calculates annual profit for September at 3.1%.
And the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates mortgage guarantee companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced on Nov. 25 that prices rose 3.26% between the third quarter of 2025 and the same period last year.
There is even more agreement about how difficult it is for many Americans to afford to shop.
According to an October ICE Mortgage Monitor report, “As of mid-September, with a 30-year interest rate of 6.26%, monthly principal and interest payments on an average-priced home required $2,148, or 30% of median household income.” This is lower than in the summer, but still 5.4 percentage points above the long-term average.
And a recent report from Realtor.com explains that the “K-shaped economy” phenomenon of growth in high-income markets and decline in lower-income markets has arrived in the housing market.
Through the first seven months of this year, sales of homes priced over $750,000 increased by 5.8% compared to the same period in 2024, while sales under $750,000 decreased by 3%, according to the report. “In other words, more expensive housing is driving a larger share of market activity, while the more affordable housing segment continues to shrink.”
The “top” of the market may be over
Meanwhile, homeowners looking to sell must contend with the reality that they may be missing out on the “top” of the market these days. Although most real estate agents and other professionals advise that you should buy or sell a home based on real-world needs rather than market timing, some owners may find it frustrating to learn that they could have fetched a higher price just a short while ago.
“I think homeowners who see their neighbors selling on weekends for 5, 10, 20 percent above asking price and having 40 showings a day and want that themselves are holding up. But we’re not going to see that again,” Maura Neal, a real estate agent with RE/MAX Around Atlanta, told USA TODAY in early November.
Some recently released Redfin data backs that up. “The number of residential properties taken off the market rose to a historic high in September,” the firm’s analysts wrote. “So many properties are becoming obsolete that sellers are delisting them. Many homeowners would rather maintain their status quo than accept a lower offer.”
As a result, one real estate agent told USA TODAY, it has become an “empty market.”
