Contract Signings Are Up 4.5% As the Spring Housing Market Becomes More Active Than Any Point Since Rates Surged In 2022

AUSTIN, Texas, May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Realtor.com^® released its Spring 2026 Housing Market Progress Report, which finds that new listings and contract signings have each reached their highest levels since 2022, with contract signings up 4.5% year-over-year in April — the strongest reading in three years — as sellers who priced their homes competitively from the start found buyers willing to act. This new report shows the housing market is more dynamic through the first four months of 2026 than at any point since mortgage rates first surged in 2022.

“For the first time in three years, we’re seeing contract signing growth that genuinely outpaces the trend of the recent past,” said Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com^®. “Buyers have been sidelined but they haven’t disappeared – they’ve simply been waiting for the right conditions. In the metros where sellers have come to market with realistic prices, buyers are showing up. That supply-demand-price alignment is what separates a dynamic market from a stagnant one, and we’re beginning to see it take hold in a meaningful way.”

New listings and contract signings each represent one side of a functioning housing market: sellers coming to market and buyers responding by going under contract. This report tracks both flows and finds that where sellers have priced their homes realistically, buyers are showing up — a pattern that separates moving markets from stagnant ones in 2026. Rather than relying on a single month’s snapshot, the report tracks the full arc of 2026 year-to-date — January through April — at the national, regional, and local level across the top 50 metros.

Spring 2026: A Market Starting to Move
The two metrics that define a functioning spring market, new listings and contract signings, are each at their highest levels since 2022, and for the first time in three years, both are moving in the right direction at the same time. Through April, new listings are up 1.4% year-over-year and 22% above the 2023 trough. Contract signings, which had been stuck 20 to 25 percentage points below 2022 levels from 2023 through 2025, rose 4.5% year-over-year in April, accelerating from 2.9% in March.

That acceleration matters beyond the headline number. Year-to-date contract signings are up 2.9% versus 2025 and 4.1% above their 2023 low, and growth in signings is now outpacing growth in new listings — narrowing the gap between supply recovery and demand recovery that has defined the past three springs. With homes that go under contract typically closing within four to six weeks, that demand signal is on track to show up in closed sales data by June, the clearest evidence yet that the 2026 housing market is starting to move.

Where Are Markets Actually Moving?
Across the top 50 metros, 34 have seen more contract signings year-to-date in 2026 than over the same period in 2025, and 31 have seen more new listings. The trends are widespread, but the strength varies considerably by market.

Twenty-one metros have seen both new listings and contract signings rise year-over-year — markets genuinely delivering on the spring promise. The Midwest dominates this group, with Kansas City (+12.5% listings, +20.7% contract signings), Louisville (+13.6%, +18.9%), Indianapolis (+14.7%, +6.6%), Columbus (+8.0%, +7.9%), and Cincinnati (+10.8%, +4.7%) all showing strong two-sided momentum.

A more surprising cluster of markets is seeing contract signings rise despite fewer new listings than last year. Phoenix (-0.4% listings, +8.1% signings), Austin (-3.5%, +7.6%), and Jacksonville (-9.5%, +5.2%) all fit this profile. These markets have undergone significant price corrections over the past two years, and buyers are responding even where new supply has not surged.

Not all markets have found this footing. Las Vegas (-0.8% listings, -8.4% signings) and Tampa (-12.2%, -3.1%) show stagnation driven by weak demand, with days-on-market climbing by more than a week year-over-year. Hartford (-13.1%, -9.2%) and Providence (-8.0%, -5.6%), by contrast, are constrained by limited supply, with inventories still well below pre-pandemic norms and time on market actually falling compared to last year.

What the Market Clock Tells Us
The pattern of which markets are most and least active is not random. At the start of 2026, the Realtor.com^® Market Clock placed 8 of the top 50 metros in buyer’s market territory, with nearly all of them in the South — and so far this year, almost all of those markets have seen fewer new listings than last year. Sellers in buyer’s markets know the conditions are not in their favor, and many are choosing to wait.

But two of those buyer’s markets — Jacksonville and Austin — tell a different story. Both have seen significant contract signing gains (+5.2% and +7.6% year-to-date, respectively) despite falling new listings. Sellers who have come to market in those metros have dropped their initial list prices aggressively enough to bring buyers off the sidelines. The price corrections that pushed Jacksonville and Austin into buyer’s market territory are now doing the work of unlocking demand — without any surge in new supply.

The picture looks different on the seller’s market side. Of the 13 seller’s markets identified by the Market Clock at the start of the year, some — like Kansas City (+20.7% contract signings) and Columbus (+7.9%) — are among the most active markets in the country, with both new listings and signings rising. Others, like Providence and Hartford, look stagnant despite their seller-friendly designation.

Pricing Realism: The Key Differentiator
Seller pricing behavior is one of the most consequential variables in determining whether a local market moves or stagnates. Nationally, the median list price per square foot is down 2.4% year-over-year in April — and yet the share of listings with price cuts has also declined, by 1.25 percentage points. This pattern is consistent with sellers pricing more realistically from the outset, reducing the need for subsequent reductions.

This dynamic is most visible in Southern metros that have absorbed significant price corrections over the past two years. Austin has seen asking prices per square foot fall 7.7% year-over-year — the steepest decline among the top 50 metros — yet its price-cut share is down 2.3 percentage points. Jacksonville, where prices are down 2.4%, has seen price cuts fall by 5 percentage points. Dallas, San Antonio, Miami, and Tampa follow the same pattern.

Critically, many of these same markets are among those where contract signings are rising even without a surge in new supply, reinforcing the conclusion that pricing realism does work that new supply alone cannot. A functioning spring market requires not just willing buyers and motivated sellers, but a shared and realistic understanding of what homes are worth.

“May and June will be decisive,” said Krimmel.  “If some resolution to Middle East uncertainty stabilizes mortgage rates and restores consumer confidence, the housing market may finally break out of the lower equilibrium it has occupied since 2022. If macro headwinds intensify — through rising rates, reaccelerating inflation, or a deterioration in confidence — the market could face the same fate as 2025, when tariff-related uncertainty stalled what had been a promising early spring.”

Methodology

Realtor.com housing data as of April 2026. Listings include the active inventory of existing single-family homes and condos/townhomes/row homes/co-ops for the given level of geography on Realtor.com. New construction is excluded unless listed on an MLS that provides listing data to Realtor.com. Realtor.com data history goes back to July 2016. The 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas as defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB-202301) and Claritas 2025 estimates of household counts.

New Listings represent the count of residential properties that were listed for sale for the first time in a given month. Contract Signings represent the flow of homes entering pending status in a given month (i.e. homes that went under contract for the first time in that period). This is a flow measure, not a stock measure. This distinguishes it from the stock of pending listings, which measures the total number of homes under contract at a given point in time regardless of when they entered that status.

Year-to-date (YTD) through April totals are calculated by summing monthly values for January through April of the relevant year. YTD growth rates compare the January-April sum in 2026 to the same four-month sum in the comparison year. For example, a YTD growth rate vs. 2025 reflects the percentage change in total activity over the first four months of 2026 relative to the first four months of 2025.

About Realtor.com^®

Realtor.com^® pioneered online real estate and has been at the forefront for over 25 years, connecting buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights, professional guidance, and powerful tools to help them find their perfect home. Recognized as the No. 1 site trusted by real estate professionals, Realtor.com^® is a valued partner, delivering consumer connections and a robust suite of marketing tools to support business growth. Realtor.com^® is operated by News Corp [Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc.

Media Contact: Mallory Micetich, press@realtor.com

 

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SOURCE Realtor.com