May Market Report: 3 Stats that Show Resilient Demand This Spring

Mortgage rates spiked 40 basis points in March. Buyers showed up anyway.

The spring home shopping season kicked off with stronger-than-expected activity. More than 281,000 homes went under contract, the second-highest monthly total since August 2022. The typical mortgage payment is still 4.4% lower than a year ago, though rising rates have eroded some of the affordability gains that had fueled optimism earlier this year.

"Housing activity is matching last year's pace, despite everything going on in the world,” says Zillow Senior Economist Orphe Divounguy. "Sales should still show a modest improvement this year, so long as the recent oil price shock dissipates quickly, inflation concerns ease, and the labor market does not weaken further.”

Here's what three key data points say about where the market is headed — and what they mean for your clients.

Buyer interest is surging despite uncertainty

Stat: Average daily page views per for-sale listing on Zillow were 32% higher than last March.

Page views per listing is a leading indicator. It measures intent: people browsing, saving, comparing — but that's what makes it useful right now. Many buyers showing up in March may be ready to transact in the weeks and months ahead.

Nationally, for-sale inventory is also up from a year ago. Because the metric divides total views on Zillow by the number of listings, an increase in inventory alone — without more actual browsing - would lower views per listing.

Takeaway: Browsing is up, but buying hasn't caught up yet. That gap is where agents can add the most value by helping clients understand what today's affordability picture actually looks like for them.

Pending sales show buyers are transacting

Stat: Newly pending listings in March were up 4.6% YoY and 29.8% from February 

Both the annual and monthly increases are the strongest for any March in five years. New listings were essentially flat year over year, up just 0.1%, yet Zillow's preliminary sales count shows 305k homes sold in March, up 3.7% from a year earlier.

The supply picture adds an important wrinkle. Inventory rose for the 28th consecutive month, up 4.2% year over year, with 1.23 million homes for sale.

"New listings are essentially flat, but pending sales are up nearly 4% from a year ago," Divounguy says. "That ratio matters. It means the gap between how quickly buyers are absorbing supply and how fast sellers are replenishing it is narrowing, and that's when buyers could start competing again."

Takeaway: Pending sales are climbing, but new listings are flat. That ratio is tightening — meaning competition could intensify through spring. Nationally, a shift from neutral to a seller’s market is taking place, according to the Zillow Market Heat Index. Sellers who list during the peak of the home shopping season may face less competition from other sellers than those who wait for the hotter summer months.

Well-priced homes are moving fast

Stat: Nearly one in five homes nationally sold within seven days in February.

That share represents one side of a market that's sorting itself into pools. In March, the median home that sold went pending in 19 days, while the median age of all listings on the market was 56 days — a 37-day gap.

During the pandemic, that gap was as small as 9 days, when a for-sale sign and a little patience were enough.

Today's gap is roughly four times wider. Well-prepared, well-priced homes are still moving fast, while everything else lingers in a pool where the typical listing has sat for nearly two months.

Takeaway: Use the gap as your pricing pitch. Reframe "the market is slow" to "the market is selective," and position pricing, presentation, and marketing as the factors that decide which side their listing lands on.