The housing market has been trending slower for a few years now. Rising mortgage rates cooled it off after several years of skyrocketing demand and prices. These days, affordability challenges linger and have both home buyers and sellers feeling cautious. Home sellers because many of them have a mortgage rate they locked in when rates were historically low. Buyers because rates and prices are still elevated. Evidence of this can be found in a recent analysis of the turnover rate. The turnover rate – which measures the share of existing homes that have sold – has dropped to a nearly 30-year low. So far in 2025, just 28 of every 1,000 homes has sold. That’s about the same as last year but significantly lower than it was during the red-hot pandemic market of 2021, when 44 of every 1,000 homes sold. Like anything else, though, location matters. In Virginia Beach, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Indianapolis, and Atlanta the turnover rate is more than three times what it is in New York and Los Angeles. (source)
