13 housing trends that defined another slow year, including record-high house prices, falling mortgage rates, and a gridlocked market
2025 was a difficult year for the housing market. The affordability crisis continued. The spring and summer homebuying seasons hardly happened. The homeowner population dropped. Buyers remained out of reach, pushing sellers to offer concessions or price cuts. Add in political issues, including tariffs and a government shutdown, and consumers were dealt a difficult hand.
Still, there were some positives. Wages increased faster than housing costs for the first time since 2016, and buyers grew more comfortable with 6% mortgage rates, helping ease the rate-lock issue.
Regional trends continued, too. The Sun Belt continued its years-long slowdown, while the Rust Belt remained popular.
“This was another unusual year for housing, with a twist,” said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin Chief Economist. “High prices continued to sideline homebuyers, but this year, home sellers followed suit. As the months went by, more sellers pulled their listings in response to weak demand, tightening an already strained housing supply and helping prop up prices. Unfortunately, affordability is unlikely to improve substantially until homebuilding picks up or mortgage rates plummet.”
Below are trends, data points, and visuals that defined the 2025 housing market.
All data was aggregated from January through November 2025 unless otherwise stated. Data came from Redfin, the U.S. Census Bureau, FRED, NAR, and/or public records. For questions about metrics, read our metrics definitions page.
1. Home prices reached another all-time high
The U.S. median home sale price reached a new all-time high of $446,000 in June. Overall, prices in 2025 remained above last year’s then-record levels, with every month surpassing the corresponding median sale price from 2024.
When averaging for the entire year, 2025’s median sale price was 1.7% higher than…