SEATTLE, Wash. – Seasonal cooling is finally seeping into the housing market after an unseasonably active fall, according to the latest market report from Zillow. 

Price cuts from sellers dropped back to normal levels from near-record highs, a rare instance of buyers losing a bit of leverage in a year when many housing trends moved in their favor. 

“Affordability is still a hurdle for homebuyers, but 2025 brought real progress,” said Kara Ng, senior economist at Zillow. “Mortgage payments dropped by more than $100 a month, while incomes continued to rise. For many households, that small shift can be the difference between sitting out the market and finally being able to buy or sell a home. While sellers and buyers alike pulled back in November, reminding us that seasonality still matters, we expect the market to warm up a bit next spring.”

Low mortgage rates in September and October pushed buyers and sellers to be more active than usual. But November saw a return to seasonality, despite mortgage rates that ticked down to 2025 lows. 

Homeowners without a need to sell are likely deciding to wait out the winter, the report says. New listings from sellers fell sharply, nearly 30% month-over-month – the largest monthly November decline since at least 2018. This reversed annual growth in new listings, from 5.1% year-over-year in October to a 4.4% annual decline in November. 

According to the report, calendar effects may explain some of the pullback in new listings: October has more Thursdays and Fridays than last year, and November has fewer – Thursday and Friday are the biggest days of the week for listing homes. However, the precipitous drop still marks the end of an unseasonably warm fall, as sellers reset before the coming year.

Price cuts from sellers also dropped, from being offered on a near-record 26.9% of listings in October to 21.2% in November, a share right in line with seasonal norms. Sellers may be holding out hope that they get the price they want in the spring instead of cutting prices to attract a buyer, the report says.

Newly pending sales that stayed steady in October finally succumbed to the seasonal slowdown in November, falling 18.5% month-over-month while remaining 3% above last year.

The housing market continued to rebalance in 2025 in the wake of explosive cost increases early in the pandemic. According to the report, buyers saw several factors move in their favor over the course of the year. These are the biggest housing macro moves from 2025:

  • Rates ruled the rhythm of the market. Spiking mortgage rates in early 2025 cooled the spring shopping season, keeping buyers cautious despite rising listings. Zillow market reports show that when rates eased over the summer, activity rebounded, pulling buyers and sellers back into the market before settling into normal seasonal patterns by November.
  • Inventory increased, and buyers gained leverage. Inventory accumulated as sellers outnumbered buyers through the spring and early summer. Growth compared with the prior year peaked at 22.8% in March, and a long-standing deficit in inventory shrank from 24% below pre-pandemic levels on New Year’s Day to a 17% shortfall by the end of November. 
  • Home values flattened. Typical home values nationwide are up just 0.2% over last year, a welcome reprieve for buyers who watched prices skyrocket in past years. At the property level, 53% of home values fell over the past year, according to Zillow research. But the vast majority of homes have gained value since their last sale.
  • Affordability improved – slightly. Affordability remains a major challenge, but it did improve slightly in 2025 due to declining mortgage rates, flattened home values and growing incomes. Monthly mortgage payments for a typical house required 35.7% of median household income at the start of the year (with a 20% down payment). That declined to 32.6% in November, the lowest since August 2022.