Spring 2026 data shows buyers returning to the market where sellers priced competitively
Contract signings in the US housing market climbed 4.5% year-over-year in April 2026, the strongest annual gain in three years, according to Realtor.com's Spring 2026 Housing Market Progress Report.
The milestone reflects a growing pattern of sellers pricing homes realistically from the outset and finding buyers ready to act.
The report, which tracks new listings and contract signings across the top 50 US metros from January through April, marks the first time since 2022 that both supply and demand signals have improved simultaneously.
New listings rose 1.4% year-over-year through April and now sit 22% above their 2023 trough.
Contract signings, which spent 2023 through 2025 running 20 to 25 percentage points below 2022 levels, accelerated from 2.9% growth in March to 4.5% in April.
"For the first time in three years, we're seeing contract signing growth that genuinely outpaces the trend of the recent past," said Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com.
"Buyers have been sidelined but they haven't disappeared — they've simply been waiting for the right conditions. In the metros where sellers have come to market with realistic prices, buyers are showing up."
For mortgage brokers tracking purchase pipeline, that demand signal carries real weight. Homes that go under contract typically close within four to six weeks, meaning that April's surge in signings is on track to show up in closed sales data by June, the clearest evidence yet that the 2026 spring market has moved beyond the stagnation of recent years.
As the mortgage rate lock-in effect has started to loosen, sellers who remained on the sidelines are finally testing the market, and in many metros, finding takers.
Where the market is moving — and where it is not
Across the top 50 metros tracked by Realtor.com, 34 recorded higher year-to-date contract signings in 2026 than over the same period in 2025, and 31 saw more new listings.
The Midwest is driving the most consistent momentum.
Kansas City posted new listings up 12.5% year-over-year alongside contract signings up 20.7%, while Louisville recorded gains of 13.6% and 18.9% respectively.
Indianapolis, Columbus, and Cincinnati round out a Midwest cluster that is delivering on what Realtor.com describes as genuine "two-sided momentum."
Read more: Home purchase cancellations plateau as buyer demand picks up in April
A more telling pattern is emerging across several Southern markets, where contract signings are rising even without a surge in new supply.
Phoenix recorded a 0.4% dip in new listings yet contract signings climbed 8.1%.
Austin saw listings fall 3.5% while signings gained 7.6%.
Jacksonville's listings dropped 9.5% but signings rose 5.2%.
In each case, significant price corrections over the past two years appear to be doing the demand-unlocking work that new inventory has not.
Not every market has reached that equilibrium. Las Vegas recorded a decline of 8.4% in contract signings alongside flat listings, while Tampa's signings fell 3.1% even as new supply dropped 12.2%.
Hartford and Providence are contending with the opposite problem — constrained inventory with days-on-market falling, but signings declining alongside it, signaling sellers who are not yet willing to price at levels that clear the market.
Pricing realism is separating moving markets from stagnant ones
The most consequential variable separating active markets from stagnant ones this spring is not mortgage rates or inventory levels alone — it is seller pricing behavior.
Nationally, the median list price per square foot fell 2.4% year-over-year in April 2026, according to Realtor.com's report.
At the same time, the share of listings with price cuts declined by 1.25 percentage points, a combination that points to sellers calibrating expectations before listing rather than adjusting downward after the fact.
That dynamic is most visible in the markets that have absorbed the steepest corrections.
Austin has seen asking prices per square foot fall 7.7% year-over-year, the largest drop among the top 50 metros, yet its price-cut share declined 2.3 percentage points.
Jacksonville, where prices are down 2.4%, recorded a 5-percentage-point drop in price reductions.
Dallas, San Antonio, Miami, and Tampa show similar patterns. These are markets where forecasters expected buyers to gain leverage as 2026 progressed, and the spring data suggests that shift is underway.
The question for mortgage professionals entering the summer months is whether that momentum holds. Krimmel is cautious.
"May and June will be decisive," he said.
"If some resolution to Middle East uncertainty stabilizes mortgage rates and restores consumer confidence, the housing market may finally break out of the lower equilibrium it has occupied since 2022. If macro headwinds intensify — through rising rates, reaccelerating inflation, or a deterioration in confidence — the market could face the same fate as 2025, when tariff-related uncertainty stalled what had been a promising early spring."
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