By Rob Sabo

New home listings are on the rise across the United States, potentially spurred by hopes of falling mortgage rates and a possible end to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, an April 23 report by real estate brokerage Redfin said.

The turn of spring may also have led to an increase in listings, which jumped by 3 percent to 107,644 during the four weeks ending April 19—the largest increase since November 2025, Redfin reported.

Late spring and early summer typically see a run-up in residential home sales, the National Association of Realtors said.

Late April is also considered the most favorable month of the year to list a home for sale since buyers have a greater chance of securing quick offers above asking price, Redfin’s housing insights team noted.

“Homes listed at the end of April are 18 percent more likely to sell above their original asking price than the rest of the year,” they said.

“The median home-sale price is 4 percent higher for homes listed at the end of April than the yearly average sale price, the biggest premium of the year. That’s because there are more buyers and more competition—and also partly because better homes tend to be listed in the spring.”

The continuing decline in mortgage rates throughout the month may have spurred some home buyers and sellers to enter the market, Redfin said. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate dipped to 6.23 percent last week, a modest 0.7 percentage point decrease from the previous week, Freddie Mac reported on April 23. The 30-year fixed rate stood at 6.46 percent on April 2.

Declining mortgage rates have resulted in an uptick in mortgage applications, which spiked by 7.9 percent week over week on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending April 17, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on April 22.

“Mortgage rates declined last week as financial markets responded positively to the Middle East ceasefire and the lower trend in oil prices,” said Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist for the MBA.

“Despite the geopolitical uncertainty, housing demand is being supported by a still resilient job market, and homebuyers are experiencing a buyer’s market in most of the country given the higher levels of inventory relative to last year.”

Home tours through April 18 were up by 32 percent from the start of the year, Redfin noted, but they were slightly off last year’s pace of a 35 percent increase during the same period.

Elevated home prices are also impacting buyer affordability. The median national sales price of $394,687 in the four weeks ending April 19 was up by 2 percent year over year; however, due to lower mortgage rates in the same period, at 6.3 percent compared with 6.83 percent a year earlier, the median monthly payment was down by 1.4 percent to $2,740.

New listings spiked the most in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a 22.2 percent increase, Redfin said. They declined the most in Tampa, Florida, with nearly 11 percent fewer homes on the market.

For-sale homes were on the market slightly longer, a median of 46 days, up by four days from the same period in 2025.