Key takeaways

• Home value growth is expected to recover in 2026 after a flat 2025.
• Home sales are forecast to end the year at 4.07 million, slightly above 2024.
• Rents should continue to cool, ending 2025 at lower growth than in past years. 

Zillow’s latest forecast calls for home values to end the year right where they started, essentially unchanged in 2025, before regaining momentum in 2026. After bottoming out as flat in December and January, annual home value growth is expected to rise to a peak of nearly 1.9% in August of 2026.

Home sales should end the year relatively weak as well, posting numbers very similar to the multi-year lows seen in 2024. Zillow’s forecast for 2025 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Existing Home Sales is now at 4.07 million, which would mark a 0.3% increase from 2024 but is slightly below last month’s forecast of 4.1 million. The revision reflects weak momentum in August sales and softer-than-expected growth in September pending home sales.

New listings growth has cooled from the strong pace seen earlier in the year but remains on track to outpace sales, which would keep inventory on its path to recovery after diving during the early years of the pandemic. 

Rents should end the year with considerably slower growth than last year, as well. Zillow expects single-family rents to rise 2.8% in 2025, down from 4.3% in 2024. Multifamily rents are projected to increase 1.1% in 2025, down from 2.5% in 2024. More new multifamily units hit the market in 2024 than any year since 1974.