Zillow Market Report: Recovery Stalls in April

(Breakout image courtesy of Binyamin Mellish/pexels.com)

Zillow, Seattle, reported that the anticipated spring recovery for the home sales market stalled somewhat in April as rates increased. For the first time this year, new listings grew more on an annual basis than home sales.

“The spring rebound we anticipated at the start of the year and that produced the stronger sales figures in March was put on pause in April by higher rates,” said Mischa Fisher, chief economist at Zillow. “Still, someone who held off in 2025 hoping conditions would improve has seen that improvement. With more homes to choose from and lower monthly costs than a year ago, the math has shifted in favor of buyers even if the moment may not feel like it. There’s still plenty of reason for optimism that we will see a quick rebound if rates cooperate.”

New listings were more than 426,000 in April, up 2.1% from a year earlier and up 10.7% from March. But, sales were down 0.4% year-over-year, and up 7.9% from March. According to the preliminary sales count, 323,631 homes sold in the month.  

Active inventory rose 3.7% year-over-year, putting the number of homes for sale at 1.3 million. Inventory was up 5.8% from March.

Newly pending listings, which measure listings that changed from for-sale to pending (rather than closed sales), were up 7.1% year-over-year and up 5.6% from March.

The monthly mortgage payment on a typical U.S. home fell 3.4% year-over-year to $1,829 in April, and home values edged up 0.7% to $366,712.

Homes are selling at a slower pace, with the typical listing moving to pending in 17 days. That’s up slightly from 16 days a year ago.

The share of listings with a price cut fell year-over-year, to 23.5%, but remains above historical norms.

About a quarter–25.4%–of homes sold above list price in March, which Zillow noted was the latest data available for that metric. That was 1.6 percentage points lower than a year earlier and 3.2 percentage points higher than February.