• Mortgage rates inched up this week to 6.83% for a 30-year fixed-rate home loan. But this isn’t a reason to freak out. Rates have remained below the 7% threshold for 13 weeks. At this same time last year, rates hovered at 7.1%, with 13% fewer loan applications than are occurring today.
• Listing prices remained flat compared to this same week last year, holding steady at $424,900. However, more sellers trimmed their asking prices this week, which suggests that buyers have more negotiation wiggle room than they did last year and should keep an eye out for these “price reduced” bids for their attention.
• The number of homes for sale surged by 31.2% compared to a year ago, marking the 75th straight week of expanding home-shopping options. Plus, fresh new listings spiked by 12.8%, and that number is expected to continue rising in the coming weeks as more sellers decide it’s time to get off their duffs and go to market.
• Homes idled on the market four more days compared to last year, lingering on average for 53 days before finding a buyer. The pace of sales has been slowing for nearly a year, and recent economic uncertainty has prompted even more buyers to downshift into wait-and-see mode.

With tariffs threatening to jack up prices on everything from coffee to Shein jeans, here’s a surprising silver lining: The Big Kahuna of all purchases, a house, may finally be getting more affordable. That is, if you know where to shop.

Although real estate prices have remained stubbornly high at $424,900 nationwide, if you zoom in to the ZIP code level, it’s a different picture. When Realtor.com compared the cost of homes in Q1 of 2025 to the same period in 2024, it found 10 neighborhoods where list prices have dropped by 25%.

These bargain-basement gems are hiding across the US, but one common theme ties them together: A glut of homes for sale has pushed sellers to slash their prices.

“ZIPs where inventory has started to build up, as is the case in much of the South, could see prices fall as sellers look to attract buyer attention,” explains Realtor.com economist Hannah Jones.

The future of home prices

With some Wall Street execs sounding the alarm that we may be heading toward a recession, home prices could fall even further. But even then, real estate experts don’t think they’ll plummet across the board.

“I don’t think home prices are going to go down across the country anytime soon, and there are strong reasons for that,” says Alexei Morgado, a real estate agent in Florida and founder of real estate exam prep company Lexawise. “The biggest is the deep shortage of housing inventory. Some estimates say we face a deficit of several million housing units, and this keeps prices high.”

And because housing supply varies significantly by area, “The impact of a recession on housing prices would be felt unevenly,” predicts Jared Antin, managing director/associate real estate broker at Elegran Forbes Global Properties. “In secondary and tertiary markets, many of which overheated during the pandemic, we’re already seeing signs of price softening as buyer demand pulls back and inventory rises.”

A recession could also bring down mortgage rates, encouraging some buyers and sellers to enter the market, although it will depend on whether they’re still feeling secure with their jobs and stock portfolios should the economy begin to struggle.

How to navigate a housing market downturn

Although buyers may rejoice at lower home prices, homeowners and sellers aren’t so enthused. In particular, investors with short-term rentals may be feeling pinched right now, says Kristen Conti, a broker with Peacock Premier Properties in Englewood, FL.

“There is an overabundance of Airbnb and VRBO properties, and many of those owners are now upside-down and unable to make adequate returns,” Conti says. “As investment property owners start offloading, it will put more downward pressure on properties.”

If a recession hits, Conti is prepared and plans to shift her focus to working with homeowners who are struggling financially and may be desperate to downsize.

“The FHA [Federal Housing Administration] is reporting higher rates of default than we have seen in many years, with expectations that these will continue to climb,” she explains. “I do outreach to these people who are in trouble and help them get out of their homes into something more affordable as opposed to foreclosure.”

Bottom line: Though a recession could usher in lower home prices in some places, it could also drag in a heaping portion of financial pain and suffering. Conti still remembers the 2008 recession and hopes never to repeat that experience.

“We were highly leveraged just before the last recession and sustained significant losses,” she recalls. “That was the beginning of the end. It was like the music stopped, and not everyone had a chair. While this period was a time of experiencing failure in a very real way, we were able to save hundreds of families from foreclosure. Now we only invest in what we know we can carry no matter what the market condition.”

The top states for imports and exports may surprise you. To assess the potential impact of tariffs, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) tabulated how much of each state’s gross domestic product (GDP) comes from foreign imports and exports. The most export-reliant? Louisiana, where 26.5% of the state’s GDP flows from shipments abroad, mainly in energy and chemicals. The most import-reliant? Kentucky, where 32.3% of its GDP stems from incoming materials such as automotive parts and pharmaceuticals. The study also found that states heavily reliant on imports and exports tend to have lower job growth and home price appreciation. Over the past 30 years, Louisiana’s home prices have risen by 192% and Kentucky’s by 222%. By comparison, in California (where only 12% of the state’s GDP comes from imports and 4.5% from exports), home prices have shot up by 382% over this same time period.

Zillow surfing could get a lot tougher. After the NAR issued new rules giving sellers the option to delay broadly marketing their homes, Zillow fought back by banning such listings from its site, announcing, “If a listing is marketed directly to consumers without being listed on the MLS and made widely available where buyers search for homes, it will not be published on Zillow.” This new rule, which is slated to kick in next month, argues that these “pocket listings” are bad for sellers and potentially discriminatory to buyers who can’t easily find them. Redfin has joined in on the ban, and though no one knows yet how this showdown will shake out, it could mean that the delightful pastime of scrolling through hundreds of listings could get a bit trickier.

The Los Angeles wildfires led to higher rents. Rental prices around the City of Angels have risen 2.4% during the first quarter of 2025—a steep increase from the 0.5% rise seen during this same time last year. These hikes are tied to January’s wildfires, which wrecked more than 12,000 properties and sent inhabitants scrambling for whatever buildings were left standing. The most significant increases were seen near the burn zone; Thousand Oaks topped the list with a 6.1% rise in median rent to $2,894 per month.

One in four New Yorkers inherits their home rather than buys it. Ever get the feeling that the Big Apple is owned by trust funders who could never afford their penthouse without their parents’ help? Real estate firm Attom confirms this is happening with data showing that 28% of all Manhattan home sales involved a trust in 2024, up from 17% three years earlier. Many anticipate that this “trust boom” will continue to surge in popularity as a tool to pass along property to younger generations. After all, with home prices in Manhattan hovering at $1.1 million and all-cash offers making up over 60% of purchases, you basically need a trust fund to buy here.

Craving calmer investments? If stock turmoil has you yearning for more investment tranquility, you’re in luck: Morningstar released its 10 best real estate investment trusts (REITs) to buy in 2025. The top pick, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, is not only the least expensive of their picks, but is also trading 52% below its fair value estimate of $21.50 per share.

With marijuana legalization spreading across the US like a contact high, many might dream of growing their own ganja—and wonder if it’s an easy way to make money. For a reality check, we talked to Greg Tannor, a commercial real estate broker who bought a cannabis farm in Walden, NY, in 2022, where he started cultivating his product, FlowerHouse. Here’s why his venture turned into a bad trip, and what he hopes to teach others.

What inspired you to buy a cannabis farm? “I’ve had experience with marijuana since the age of 18 on the consumption side. My mother was a cancer survivor; I used to roll her joints. I also lost two cousins to cannabis laced with fentanyl, so I wanted to be able to offer consumers a safe product. After 25 years as a commercial real estate broker, in 2020, I got a phone call about cannabis becoming legal in New York State. Since it was in the middle of Covid and I wasn’t doing much besides learning how to bake, I started doing research.”

How did you find a farm to buy? “I found a 40-acre farm in Walden, NY, that usually grew Christmas trees and houseplants. The first time I saw it, I drove up a dirt road on a hill and saw all the greenhouses. It was a beautiful sight, especially at night when the lights were on. Very peaceful. I told the owner, ‘Sell me the farm. Cannabis is coming.’ I purchased the farm for $5 million. Since cannabis financing is challenging, we put down 50%, and the property’s owner operated as the bank. We applied for a cultivation license, and once we got it in February 2022, we put plants in the ground.”

What challenges did you face? “You’re dealing with a live plant, and anytime you deal with a live object, it’s going to be risky, time-consuming, and expensive. You grow, then you harvest, then you dry, trim, and cure, before it finally goes into the jar. You put money out there for 15 months and have to wait for your return. Heating in the winter and electricity in the summer cost $20K, $30K, $40K a month. There’s infrastructure, irrigation, upgrades to the property, and around 35 staffers. It costs several million to run per year.”

How much money did the farm make? “In the first year of being fully operational, it made about $4 million in revenue. But it was costing more to run than it was bringing in. The money was not used appropriately and was getting burned through too quickly. Plus, my partner was creating a toxic environment, yelling, screaming, finger-pointing. People were scared, which is not what you’d expect. You’d think there’d be music playing, dancing in the fields, everyone happy.”

How did you turn the farm around? “In January 2024, my toxic partner was terminated, and I stepped in and began running FlowerHouse myself. After diving into the books and bringing in the right resources, we doubled our revenue for 2024 to $8 million. But even then, it was too expensive to operate and too risky, so we gave back the keys to the farm in January 2024. I did it to save the company.”

Since you sold the farm, what are you focused on now? “I’ve partnered with another farm to grow our FlowerHouse strains for us. We purchase flower from our partners that’s already grown, trimmed, and cured, and basically it goes through a final quality control with us, then we do the packaging, processing, wholesale, and distribution. This business model de-risks the company. Today, we are in over 100 stores throughout the states.”

What advice do you have for others who dream about starting a cannabis farm? “Wake up. What people see on the surface is, ‘Oh, that looks so fun, you’re selling weed!’ But this is a business, and it’s hard. There’s competition, so many moving parts. Packaging prices in China just went up. You have to figure out how to stay ahead. My wife saw it from day one, what I’ve been through, mentally, emotionally, financially. What I’d recommend if this is your dream is to start with state regulations and grow a plant or two in your backyard and see what it takes, how it comes out. Next, visit a farm and watch a real farm grow. We’re happy to bring people to facilities to show people what it really takes.”

A dollhouse is a fixer-upper light, requiring only cosmetic updates that even Barbie could renovate with her own plastic hands. Dollhouses are super-popular investments right now since they typically won’t call for as many construction materials that may be pricier today due to tariffs. The key to spotting a dollhouse is to steer clear of homes with major problems in the roof, foundation, or HVAC, and zero in on properties that simply need a couple of superficial tweaks like new kitchen cabinet doors or a fresh paint job before heading to market. Here’s more on why the fixer-upper fad is so over.

The world of real estate runs on colorful language that’s constantly evolving, so to keep you up with the latest lingo, we’ll deliver a term to know each week. Heard a word or phrase you want explained? Submit your own Term of the Week here.