2026 Market Prediction: Why I Expect a Much More Active Year
2025 was the year inventory finally started to build again, and you could feel it in the stats and on the ground: days on market climbed steadily as buyers had more options and sellers had to work harder to win attention. But heading into 2026, I believe we’re setting up for the most active sales year since the 2023 interest-rate hikes, and the early indicators are starting to point in that direction.
Showings per Listing is based on ShowingTime-scheduled appointments, so it doesn’t capture every showing arranged outside the platform. It’s a leading indicator of buyer activity, while pending and closed sales are lagging indicators—so I always sanity-check this chart against pendings, closings, and what agents are seeing on the ground.
Here’s why I think the buyer opportunity window is starting to narrow: inventory has been elevated in pockets—100 West, for example, has carried 10+ active listings for months at a time—which creates negotiating leverage for buyers. But as the market catches up to what many sellers have been holding out for, I expect days on market to start falling, and I don’t expect today’s higher inventory levels to stick around indefinitely.
“Move Up” Sellers will soon spike
Another major catalyst for 2026 is the return of the move-up seller. A lot of homeowners have been “frozen” by rate shock and uncertainty—unwilling to sell and trade into a higher payment or unsure where the market was headed. As rates ease and confidence improves, more of those sellers are likely to come off the fence and list. That will add supply (especially in condos and townhomes), but my prediction is that demand will exceed that supply, tightening the market and increasing competition for the best homes.
Early Bird Gets the Worm
If you’re a homeowner considering selling, the move is to beat the crowd and start planning now. The last thing you want is to sell late and then get swept into bidding wars on your upleg purchase like what we saw in 2021–2022. Talk to a Realtor early, and get pre-approved early. A good lender can run realistic scenarios based on expected sale proceeds so you can see the monthly payment on the next home—and make decisions from a position of strength, not urgency.
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