May 29, 2026 Economic and Housing Market Update

May 29, 2026

Overview

The Realtor.com® economics team video update gives you the relevant economic and real estate information you need to know each week, every Friday, to navigate the housing market as a homebuyer, home seller, or industry professional.
For the week ending May 29, Realtor.com® Sr. Economist Anthony Smith sits in for Chief Economist Danielle Hale. He covers the Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate, which ticked up just 2 basis points to 6.53%, with more detail available in the weekly mortgage rate update video with colleague Jake Krimmel.
Anthony also covers the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index, which showed national home price growth holding near a standstill through March, with more than half of the 20 tracked metros posting annual declines for the 10th consecutive month.
He then covers new home sales in April from Sr. Economist Joel Berner, which showed a sharp pullback of 6.2% month over month and 11.3% year over year, with months’ supply climbing to 9.4. Anthony also highlights the latest Realtor.com weekly housing data from Sr. Economist Hannah Jones, showing active inventory up 2.2% year over year and asking prices down 2.4%, the 19th straight week of declines, with sellers increasingly pricing realistically from the start.
Moving to research from colleague Jiayi Xu, Anthony covers international demand in Q1 2026, with Canada remaining the top source of traffic at 37.8% and Los Angeles continuing to lose ground with global buyers. He also highlights Jiayi’s new research on the AI wealth effect in Bay Area housing, which finds that AI equity liquidity events are driving an estimated $198,000 in additional down payment on entry-level Bay Area luxury homes compared to markets like Miami, Austin, and New York.
Finally, Anthony wraps up his three-part series on the Luxury of the Hudson Valley, spanning Westchester commuter estates, Catskill mountain retreats, and Dutchess County equestrian properties. Eight of the valley’s ten counties outpaced national luxury price growth since 2019, with Ulster and Greene nearly tripling the national rate
Find all the details, including full reports and our housing data for download at realtor.com/research. You can also follow us on X (formerly Twitter) for real-time updates. And Instagram @realtordotcomecon for graphics.

Reports and articles referenced

Housing data for download:

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Inventory is building, asking prices are falling, and mortgage rates are holding near 6.5%. I’m Anthony Smith, Senior Economist at Realtor.com, sitting in for Chief Economist Danielle Hale. Let’s get into what’s moving the market this week.
For mortgage rates, my colleague Jake Krimmel and I covered this in depth in our weekly mortgage rate update video, so we’ll keep it brief here: the Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate ticked up 2 basis points to 6.53%, essentially flat on the week.
Ceasefire optimism in the Middle East helped bond markets settle, but rates remain 55 basis points above the multi-year lows seen in late February.
However, the silver lining is we’re still 36 basis points below the same period in 2025.
I also had a chance to cover the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index this week, which showed national home price growth is holding near a standstill through the first quarter of 2026, up 0.7% year over year. More than half of the 20 tracked metros posted annual declines, which is the 10th consecutive month of that pattern.
Seattle had the steepest annual decline, down 2.5%, while Chicago held the top spot, up 6.1% over the same period.
On the new homes side, we got coverage from my colleague Joel Berner, the report showed that sales pulled back sharply in April, falling 6.2% month over month and 11.3% year over year.
Months’ supply climbed to 9.4, firmly in buyer territory.
Joel also went on to mention that you can expect builders to continue to pull back on single-family home construction if sales remain weak, and expect more price reductions and buyer incentives to be offered to sweeten the deal for reluctant buyers.
Realtor.com weekly housing data was covered by Senior Economist Hannah Jones, and showed that active inventory is up 2.2% year over year and asking prices are down 2.4%, the 19th straight week of declines.
Notably, price reductions are falling year over year, meaning sellers are pricing more modestly from the start rather than listing high and cutting later. Which is a meaningful shift for buyers.
My colleague Jiayi Xu has two reports to highlight this week. Starting off with international demand in the first quarter of 2026: Canada was the top source of international traffic at 37.8%, partially recovering from the tariff-driven pullback in 2025 but still below the pre-tariff levels.
Los Angeles continues to lose ground with global buyers, with its international share falling from 7.9% in the first quarter of 2020 to 4.6% today, as Miami, Dallas, and New York absorb that interest.
Second, she also released new research on the AI wealth effect in Bay Area housing:
showing that Bay Area luxury buyers have been putting significantly more cash down than comparable markets like Miami, Austin, and New York.
The data points to AI equity liquidity events as the driver, with an estimated premium of roughly 6.6 percentage points, or about $198,000 in additional down payment on an entry-level Bay Area luxury home.
Finally, I put out a three-part series on the Luxury of the Hudson Valley.
The valley spans commuter estates, mountain retreats, and large equestrian properties. It also contains some of the oldest housing stock in the country. Columbia County has 24% of its listings built before 1900.
For the overall Hudson Valley, eight of the ten counties outpaced national luxury price growth since 2019, with Ulster and Greene nearly tripling the national rate.
You can find all the details including the Realtor.com Market Clock, full reports and our housing data for download, at realtor.com/research. You can also follow us on X (formerly twitter) for real time updates. And instagram for graphics.