June 6, 2025
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
- I’m Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com®. As the days grow longer, I’m going to discuss the latest data on the labor market. I’ll review the latest mortgage rates, as well as Realtor.com weekly housing data and May Housing Trends. Finally, I’ll highlight findings from the latest International Demand Report that offers a glimpse at what’s changed in the first quarter.
- Let’s start with the labor market which showed that companies continued to add jobs in May. Job gains were greatest in healthcare, leisure & hospitality, and social assistance industries, while the federal government saw employment continue to decline.
- Consistent with job gains, unemployment held steady at a low level, and wages rose. Although consumers have expressed concern about the labor market, the data has held up.
- In the mortgage market, rates on a 30-year fixed rate loan dropped for the first time in a month. The dip was modest, and rates are still solidly in the upper 6% range we’ve seen for most of the past 8 months, but they remain lower than they were at this time last year.
- Looking at Realtor.com housing data, we see that in May the number of homes for sale grew, hitting a key milestone, with more than a million active listings on the market for the first time since late 2019. With listings rising, home prices were roughly flat. It also took longer to sell homes and a greater share of for-sale homes had price reductions.
- Weekly housing data show that these trends were fairly consistent throughout the month, though the last week of the month showed modestly weaker new listings, which are worth keeping an eye on.
- It’s important to note that not every housing market is equally well-supplied. Recent construction trends explain a lot of the variation in recovery that we see across markets, showcasing how vital homebuilding is for housing availability and buyer prospects.
- Turning to the demand side of the equation, the Realtor.com International Demand Report showed that shoppers from abroad grew slightly as a share of all international traffic in the first quarter. However, we saw a drop from potential Canadian home shoppers, underscoring fallout from recent trade and other policies on cross-border real estate interest.
- While coastal magnets like Miami, New York, and Los Angeles continue to attract global buyers, the growing appeal of Texas markets to international buyers is a notable shift that mirrors trends seen in domestic migration as well.
- You can 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 for graphics.
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