Engaged Home Shoppers Rose 20% This Spring, a Sign of Pent-Up Demand

• Engaged home shoppers — Zillow users who save or share a for-sale listing — were up 21% year over year this past spring, at 4.8 shoppers per listing nationally.
• Buffalo, Providence and Hartford had the most engaged shoppers per listing; Houston, Miami and San Antonio had the fewest.
• Higher-priced and larger homes are attracting disproportionately more engaged shoppers.

This year's home shopping season had no shortage of interest, but sales didn't fully reflect that. Engaged home shoppers¹, people who went beyond casual browsing to save or share a for-sale listing on Zillow, hit nearly five per listing this past spring, a 21% jump from the previous year.

Despite the surge, home sales told a more modest story, rising just 4.5% over the same period. Serious home shopping was up even with more inventory on the market than a year before, making the signal of pent-up demand even stronger. Elevated mortgage rates and affordability pressures are keeping would-be buyers on the sidelines.

This analysis captures the second quarter of 2026, the height of the home shopping season. Heading into it, mortgage rates held at or below 6.5%, and affordability was more favorable than a year prior. Since then, conditions have tightened, with a weaker-than-anticipated close to the year expected.

This past spring offered a window into what demand looks like when conditions are even modestly more favorable. Since then, borrowing costs have moved back up, and economic uncertainty has weighed on household decisions, widening the gap between intent and action. There is a lot of pent-up demand sitting on the sidelines, and the right conditions could open the floodgates.

Where competition is fiercest — and where engaged home shoppers have the upper hand

That pent-up demand isn’t spread evenly. In some Northeast markets, where years of underbuilding have kept inventory tight, engaged home shoppers are competing 10 to 1 for every home. In parts of the Sun Belt, the ratio barely clears 2 to 1.

Five most competitive markets:

1. Buffalo, New York — 10.5 engaged shoppers per listing
2. Providence, Rhode Island — 9.5
3. Hartford, Connecticut — 8.5
4. San Francisco, California — 7.6
5. Cleveland, Ohio — 7.3

In markets where more home shoppers are eyeing each listing, competition heats up, and the window to act on a home can close faster.

Five least competitive markets:

1. Houston, Texas — 2.2 engaged shoppers per listing
2. Miami, Florida — 2.4
3. San Antonio, Texas — 2.9
4. Las Vegas, Nevada — 3.4
5. Austin, Texas — 3.4

Sun Belt markets dominate the least competitive list, where a wave of new inventory has cooled competition and given buyers more options and more room to negotiate.

Pricier, bigger homes are attracting the most engaged home shoppers

Engaged shopper activity reflects the K-shaped housing market Zillow has been tracking across the for-sale market. Luxury listings² had a median of eight engaged home shoppers per listing this past spring, nearly three times the 2.7 per listing seen for bottom-tier homes. More tellingly, engagement for luxury homes grew 25.7% year over year while bottom-tier engagement grew just 8.6%, meaning the gap is widening. Wealthier home shoppers appear more insulated from today’s economic headwinds and more willing to step into the market.

The same pattern holds according to home size. Listings with four or more bedrooms attracted 6.6 engaged home shoppers per listing, nearly double the 3.5 seen for two-bedroom homes, and posted stronger year-over-year growth as well. For now, higher-end home shoppers tend to have more financial flexibility to navigate today’s borrowing costs and economic uncertainty, and they are stepping into the market accordingly.

*Table ordered by market size

[1] Engaged shoppers per listing reflects Q2 2026 data. An engaged shopper is defined as a Zillow user who saved or shared a for-sale listing. Updated definition excludes agent activity.

[2] Zillow defines price tiers for this analysis as follows: Bottom-tier homes are those in the 5th to 35th percentile of home values in a given region, and luxury homes are those in the top 5% of home values in a given region.