Real estate agents see housing market moving closer to balance
CNBC’s survey found more agents reporting equal leverage for buyers and sellers as asking prices ease and inventory improves.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
More U.S. real estate agents say the housing market is no longer tilted so sharply toward sellers, according to CNBC’s Housing Market Survey. The shift matters for buyers who have spent years facing limited choices, high prices and little room to bargain.
In CNBC’s second-quarter survey, 44% of agents said their local market looked balanced between buyers and sellers. That was up from 30% in the third quarter of 2025, when CNBC began the quarterly survey.
CNBC said the survey is a national poll of real estate agents chosen at random across the United States. The second-quarter responses were gathered from June 23 through June 30, with 53 agents participating.
The survey also showed fewer agents reporting price cuts on active listings. CNBC said 57% of respondents had at least one listing with a price reduction in the second quarter, down from 89% in the third quarter of 2025.
Jeremy Kane, an EXP Realty agent in Denver, told CNBC that leverage now depends on the home, neighborhood, condition and price range. He said both sides can have some negotiating power in the current market.
Prices are cooling, but not falling broadly
Home sales in May were 3% higher than a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors, which CNBC attributed to more available supply and softer pricing. CNBC reported that sellers appear to be setting asking prices closer to current market conditions than they did during the early pandemic boom.
The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller national home price index showed home prices still slightly above year-earlier levels, up less than 1%, according to CNBC. Realtor.com data cited by CNBC showed June asking prices down 2.5% from a year earlier, the largest annual decline in that series since tracking began in 2017 and the eighth straight monthly decline.
Bruce Jones, a Compass agent in Nashville, Tennessee, told CNBC that sellers are pushing back less on pricing advice. He said correctly priced homes are still selling, while broad price declines are not the pattern he is seeing.
Martha Thorn, a Coldwell Banker agent in Tampa, Florida, told CNBC she tells sellers that homes need to be priced to sell rather than sit on the market. That shift toward more realistic pricing appears to be reducing failed deals, according to CNBC’s survey.
CNBC said 40% of agents reported at least one contract cancellation in the second quarter. That was down from 51% in the first quarter.
Mortgage rates remain the main pressure point
Agents told CNBC that mortgage rates and prices have replaced the broader economy as buyers’ leading concerns. In the fourth quarter of 2025, 26% of agents said mortgage rates were buyers’ top worry; in the second quarter of 2026, that share rose to 37%, according to CNBC.
Mortgage News Daily data cited by CNBC showed the 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 5.99% at the end of February before rising in March. CNBC said the rate last peaked at 6.75% on May 19 and has since stayed near 6.6%.
Realtor.com reported that June inventory was up just under 2% from a year earlier and that new listings rose 2.4%, according to CNBC. Realtor.com counted 1.1 million homes listed for sale, compared with about 614,000 at the same point in 2023, CNBC reported.
Despite the move toward balance, agents have become less upbeat about near-term sales. CNBC’s survey found 19% expect sales to improve soon, down from 48% in the third quarter of 2025, while 67% expect sales to remain about the same.
Joel Eronko of Nicholas Joel Realty Group in Houston told CNBC that the issue is buyers’ and sellers’ expectations rather than a shortage of buyers. He said his focus is on local, current data instead of national economic headlines.
This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.