Consumer News: Here’s who is still considering a home purchase

Industry data suggest affluent buyers are now driving the market

By Mark Huffman of ConsumerAffairs

• Lower-priced homes are drawing a much smaller share of online shopper traffic than five years ago, a Realtor.com analysis findsa trend the company says reflects many price-sensitive would-be buyers leaving the market rather than improved affordability.

• The national median list price fell 2.4% year over year in July to $428,950, nearly matching the $425,000 median price of homes shoppers viewed.

• Higher-end buyers remain comparatively active despite more inventory, producing what Realtor.com calls a K-shaped housing market divided by financial capacity.

Americas housing market may appear to be moving toward balance, but a new Realtor.com analysis suggests the apparent improvement masks a widening divide between financially secure buyers and households priced out of homeownership.

The report found that homes priced below $370,000 received only 42.8% of online listing views so far in 2026, down 11.4 percentage points from 2021. Normally, lower-priced homes would get the most attention.

Realtor.com argues that the change does not necessarily signal a healthier market for entry-level buyers. Rather, it says, many consumers who once competed for lower-cost homes may have stopped shopping because elevated prices, borrowing costs and affordability pressures put a purchase out of reach.

Sellers adjust expectations

The gap between what sellers are asking and what shoppers are viewing has narrowed since late 2025. In July, the national median list price was $428,950, down 2.4% from $439,450 a year earlier. Meanwhile, the median price of properties viewed by shoppers held steady at $425,000 in both July 2025 and July 2026.

That narrowing gap reflects more realistic seller pricing and a buyer pool that is increasingly able to qualify for a mortgage and absorb the costs of ownership, according to the report. Yet the overall numbers obscure a major change in which Americans can participate in the market.

The market is more balanced on the surface, but that balance is not the same as broad-based health, Jiayi Xu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in the report. The narrowing gap between listing share and view share at lower price points is being driven in large part by the retreat of price-sensitive shoppers, not by a meaningful restoration of their buying power.

Entry-level shoppers fade

The supply picture has shifted upward in price. While the number of homes for sale has more than doubled since 2021, much of that growth has occurred in mid- and upper-price tiers.

Homes below $370,000 represented half of active listings in 2021, but their share fell to 42.2% in 2026. Buyer interest fell even faster: those homes accounted for 54.2% of listing views in 2021, when demand clearly exceeded the supply available, compared with 42.8% this year.

Realtor.com said the decline in shopper attention is particularly notable because lower-priced inventory has also shrunk as a share of the market. Typically, fewer entry-level homes would lead to greater competition for each available property. Instead, views per listing in the lower-price range have dropped to their lowest level since 2019, according to the report.

Affluent buyers remain active

At the other end of the market, buyer engagement has held up better. High-tier homes are attracting fewer views per listing than during the unusually competitive housing period from 2020 through 2025, but activity remains roughly in line with 2019 levels even as higher-priced inventory has expanded.

The contrast points to a market increasingly shaped by buyers financial resources. Buyers with substantial incomes, savings, equity from prior homes or access to cash can remain active in the upper tiers. First-time buyers and other households dependent on lower-priced homes face a more difficult path.

Realtor.com described the result as a K-shaped housing market: one track for well-capitalized buyers able to keep shopping, and another for price-sensitive households increasingly sidelined by affordability constraints.