Why It’s Harder to Find Buyers and Sellers Right Now

If you’ve been in real estate long enough, you develop a sense for when the market is genuinely difficult versus when it’s just loud. This moment feels truly harder. Not because transactions aren’t happening, but because the usual signals agents rely on no longer line up the way they used to.

Inventory is up in many parts of the country. Rates are meaningfully off their highs. Prices, while still elevated, have stopped doing the heavy lifting. On paper, this should feel easier. In practice, many agents feel stuck between buyers who hesitate and sellers who delay, even as both sides insist they’re “keeping an eye on things.”

Sound a bit too familiar? If it feels like you’re working harder to get the same result, you’re not imagining it.

Inventory looks normal again (and that’s the problem)

Housing supply has quietly returned to something resembling pre-pandemic levels. Data from the Federal Reserve shows months of supply climbing back toward the ranges last seen in 2018–2019 after spending several years at historic lows. In much of the South and West, active listings are now meaningfully higher than they were even a year ago.

This shift is most noticeable in faster-growth Sun Belt markets, where new construction, migration, and seller confidence brought inventory back faster than in the Northeast or Midwest. In these markets, agents aren’t short on listings, they’re short on synchronization.

If you are an ol’ salt (like me) congratulations, we’ve sailed this passage before. Long before the pandemic, inventory cycles shaped buyer and seller behavior in predictable ways, something we explored in That Was Not a Hot Housing Market. The difference now is that many agents built their entire workflow during an era when scarcity did most of the work.

Scarcity used to create urgency for free. Homes sold quickly, sellers felt confident, and buyers didn’t need much encouragement to act. As inventory normalized, that automatic momentum disappeared.

Now, effort matters again. Which is inconvenient, but historically accurate.

Sellers returned faster than buyers

Another under appreciated shift is how quickly sellers re-entered the market relative to buyers. Recent Redfin data shows that in multiple periods, sellers have outnumbered buyers nationally, with listings growing faster than pending sales.

In many Southern and Western metros, listings are no longer scarce, but buyers are selective. That combination creates a market where homes don’t fly off the shelf, but they also don’t disappear, they wait and this spring they will return.

That doesn’t mean demand vanished. It means buyers regained leverage. When buyers have options, they compare. They negotiate. They pause. And many sellers are still anchored to expectations formed during a very different market.

When buyers slow down and sellers hold firm, friction shows up everywhere.

Rates came down, but behavior didn’t snap back

Mortgage rates for the common 30 year peaked near 7.5–8% in late 2023 and have since come down by roughly 1.25–1.5 percentage points. As of early 2026, the average 30-year fixed rate sits in the mid-6% range. Just like when I bought my first house.

That helped affordability at the margins, but it didn’t reset buyer psychology to 2021. People adjusted. Expectations recalibrated. Instead of unlocking a wave of first-time buyers, lower rates mostly gave existing homeowners more flexibility.

Many buyers today already own a home. They have equity. They can buy before selling, or at least feel like they might be able to. That optionality stretches timelines, and stretched timelines are what agents feel slipping through their fingers.

Prices stopped solving indecision

Home prices haven’t collapsed, but they also aren’t racing higher. National home value data shows appreciation flattening into the low single digits across much of the country, with some regions slightly up and others modestly down.

This flattening has been especially visible across parts of the South and West, where rapid pandemic-era appreciation cooled once supply returned and buyers regained leverage.

Flat prices remove a powerful motivator. When appreciation slows, decisions feel heavier. Buyers worry about timing. Sellers worry about missing something. Both sides wait for clarity that the market rarely delivers on schedule.

That waiting shows up as longer days on market, more price conversations, and a general sense that everything takes longer than it used to. Because it does.

Buyers and sellers aren’t gone … they’re out of sync

The popular explanation is that there are “no buyers” or “no sellers.” That’s not quite right. There are plenty of both. They’re just operating on different clocks.

Many buyers are homeowners who haven’t committed to selling yet. Many sellers would move if they felt confident about the next step. The transaction hasn’t disappeared. It’s just stretched, like taffy left out in the sun.

That stretch is what makes the market feel stubborn.

Why this feels especially frustrating for agents

Most agent systems are built around visible intent. New leads. Inbound inquiries. Clear hand-raises. Those signals worked well when urgency was high and inventory was scarce.

In a more normal market, intent shows up earlier and quieter. It looks like curiosity instead of commitment. It shows up as questions about value, equity, and options, not immediate showings or pre-approvals.

When agents only look for ready-now signals, they miss the people most likely to transact next.

This is the core idea behind a database-first approach. As we outlined in Turn Your Database Into Listings, the most productive conversations often happen well before someone says they’re ready, when context exists, but decisions are still forming.

The transaction often starts with a homeowner, not a buyer

One of the most misunderstood dynamics right now is where buyers actually come from. Back before affordability sank, a large portion of buyers were young, first time buyers. Today, a growing share of buyers already own a home. They aren’t browsing listings for entertainment (well, not as much). They’re thinking through logistics.

What’s my home worth now?
How much equity do I really have?
Could we buy before we sell?
What happens if we wait another year?

Those questions usually precede both sides of the transaction. They just don’t look like buyer leads. More like buyer pre-thoughts.

Why relationships matter more than reach right now

In markets where timing stretches, relationships compress uncertainty. People don’t move faster because they see more ads. They move faster because they trust the answers they’re getting. They get comfortable with the idea.

That’s why agents who focus on their existing contacts, past clients, and local farm often feel more traction than those chasing volume. The conversations are easier. The context already exists. The trust is already built.

It turns out that knowing someone is still an advantage. Old-fashioned, but effective.

Home value curiosity is an early signal

When homeowners ask about value, it’s rarely academic. It’s usually tied to something else. A job change. A growing family. A shrinking or divided family. Parents aging and too many steps.

That curiosity doesn’t guarantee a transaction, but it’s often the earliest visible signal that one is forming.

This lines up with what we outlined in The Future Report: 5 Predictions for 2026 Real Estate Agents. Timing, context, and early relevance matter more than sheer volume in the next phase of the market.

This market rewards patience and relevance

The pandemic market rewarded speed (and cash). This market rewards timing (and relationships).

Agents who do well here aren’t necessarily doing more. They’re paying attention differently. They’re working with people they already know. They’re staying relevant over longer decision cycles. They’re helping clients think through both sides of a move instead of treating buying and selling as unrelated events.

It’s less adrenaline. More judgment.

The opportunity most agents miss

The irony is that this market favors agents who slow down enough to notice what’s actually happening. Buyers and sellers aren’t missing. They’re just earlier in the process than they used to be.

When you recognize that, the work changes. The conversations get easier. And the path to transactions becomes clearer, even if it takes a little longer.

Which, inconveniently and very on brand … is how real estate used to work.

A quiet next step

If this market feels harder than it should, the answer usually isn’t more leads or more work. It’s better timing. The agents having the most productive conversations right now aren’t chasing strangers, they’re paying closer attention to the homeowners they already know, especially the ones quietly asking better questions.

If you’re curious whether your own database is set up to surface those moments, a quick, no-pressure database audit can help clarify where opportunities may already exist:
https://revaluate.com/audit

In a slower, more selective market, relevance still beats reach.