By Shaina Mishkin

More houses are hitting the real estate market this spring. That's slowing price gains -- making it easier to buy a home.

In the Phoenix area, "buyers are really in the driver's seat" this spring, says Arizona real estate agent Wendy Herst. Inventory is accumulating as sellers seek top dollar for their listings -- but there are fewer buyers willing to pay those prices.

Nationally, there are still fewer previously-owned homes listed for sale than there were before the pandemic, National Association of Realtors data show. However, that's no longer the case in a growing number of metropolitan areas: It's a notable shift in a housing market that has long been hurting for supply.

Last month, 22 of the 90 largest U.S. metropolitan areas tracked by Redfin had more homes for sale than they did in March 2019. Compare that to 2024, when nine metro areas had more homes on the market than they did in 2019.

Texas and Florida still lead the nation in the number of metropolitan areas with inventory stacking up, the data show. There were seven Texas locales with more inventory than in 2019, led by the Austin metro area, which had a roughly 46% increase. Florida followed close behind, with six metros. But inventory is also rising in Colorado and Arizona markets: each state had two metros with more listings than in 2019.

It's not that no one is shopping for a home. "Buyers are returning," notes Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. "Just not as much as inventory." That dynamic recently led Zillow to revise its forecast to call for a national 1.9% decline in home values by the end of 2025, Barron's previously reported.

There are plenty of reasons for buyer hesitancy this year. Prices and mortgage rates are still high -- as is the cost of property insurance. More consumers are worried about their job security, and stock market swings likely aren't helping. In some parts of the country, such as the northeast, homes remain in particularly short supply, leading to solid prices and competition.

But many buyers in the market today could notice more price declines, the Redfin data show. About half of the metros which had more available inventory in March than the same month in 2019 also had median prices lower than they were in 2024, the figures indicate.

For example, Redfin's median sale price in March was down 1.3% in Tucson, 1.4% in Dallas, and 2.6% in San Francisco. Prices fell as much as 7.4%, in Cape Coral, Fla., where listings were nearly 30% higher than they were in 2019. A median sale price decline doesn't necessarily mean sellers are cutting prices or home values are falling. It could also mean more small or low-priced homes are hitting the market -- a positive for first-time buyers.

When it comes to lower prices and discounts, location matters -- as does the type of unit available. Condos in the south are selling for prices 4.5% lower than they were last year amid an "oversupply" in the market, National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun said last week. That could be in part because of assessment issues in some older Florida condos.

More than 23% of Zillow listings saw price cuts in March -- but builders are more incentivized to offer discounts than those selling a primary residence. In April, 29% of home builders cut prices, while 61% offered buyers sales incentives to sweeten the deal, the National Association of Home Builders said earlier this month.

"The builders are getting more aggressive in cutting prices and getting cheaper units off their lots," Rosenberg Research president David Rosenberg wrote in a Wednesday report. "You can see the extent to which this has become a buyer's market in that it now takes a median of 3.1 months for the builders to make a sale upon completion of the unit, up from 2.9 months in February and 2.8 months a year ago, to stand at the longest time lag since April 2022."

In the Phoenix area, where listings in March were 4.1% higher than the same month in 2019, prices are still rising. But some sellers are cutting listing prices and offering credits for big repairs, like roof replacements, says Herst, the Arizona agent.

"Sellers have been very sticky in terms of lowering their prices -- but we're definitely starting to see it," she says.

Write to Shaina Mishkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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April 27, 2025 01:00 ET (05:00 GMT)

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