May 8, 2026
Overview
- The Realtor.com® economics team video update gives you the relevant economic and real estate information you need to know each week, every Friday, to navigate the housing market as a homebuyer, home seller, or industry professional.
- For the week ending May 8, Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale discusses the April jobs report, which showed 115,000 jobs added and unemployment holding steady at 4.3%, and what it means for mortgage rates, which climbed to 6.37% this week amid renewed geopolitical tensions.
- She then covers the latest weekly housing data from Realtor.com, showing mixed signals in a “cautiously active” market, with a widening price gap and soft new listings, which Danielle identifies as the make-or-break indicator for the spring housing market.
- She also highlights the April Hottest Housing Markets report, where Springfield, Massachusetts, topped the list alongside several other Northeast corridor markets from New York to Boston.
- Finally, Danielle digs into three recent Realtor.com Economics reports: a look at March new home sales, which picked up from both last month and last year even as prices slipped 6.2%; a review of the Q1 2026 New Construction Insights report from colleague Joel Berner, which examines listing price stability and the scarcity of new builds in urban areas; and finally, in honor of Mother’s Day, a look at the Realtor.com multigenerational housing report from Hannah Jones and Jiayi Xu, revealing that multigenerational homes now make up 4.5% of homeowner households and command a 22% price premium per square foot.
- 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 @realtordotcomecon for graphics.
Reports and articles referenced
Housing data for download:
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
- With the spring housing market at a critical crossroad, I’ll share the make-or-break trend I’m seeing in new listings as mortgage rates continue to be battered by the shifting waves of geopolitical tension. I’m Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com® and today I’ll share why the Northeast is still hot, why new home prices are slipping, and the housing feature currently commanding a 22% price premium.
- Let’s start with the labor market. Today’s job report release showed that despite headwinds, companies continued to hire with jobs up by 115 thousand in April, enough to keep unemployment steady at 4.3%. Importantly, average hourly earnings rose 3.6%, enough to continue to outpace inflation although the cushion has shrunk considerably.
- This labor market report, which my colleague Jake Krimmel called “steadying” is not likely to have a big impact on mortgage rates. The primary drivers continue to be inflation concerns and, as a result of its outsized impact on prices, the situation in the Middle East. Renewed tensions pushed mortgage rates up to 6.37% this week, but it is an actively evolving situation. Fortunately, mortgage rates remain nearly 40 basis points lower than they were at this time last year, and are currently close to their 52-week average. My colleagues Anthony Smith and Hannah Jones discuss this week’s results in more detail in another video.
- Realtor.com weekly housing data showed mixed signals this week in a market my colleague Jiayi Xu described as “cautiously active.” We saw a widening gap in pricing compared to a year ago as the growth rate of inventory slows and homes sit for almost the same time on market as one year ago. I’m watching the new listings trend, which was soft again this week, most closely. I think it’s the make-or-break indicator for the housing market this spring.
- Of course this indicator is more meaningful in some regions, particularly the Northeast and Midwest, where still-scarce inventory is contributing to competitiveness. In the April Hottest Housing Markets report, Hannah Jones found that while Springfield, Massachusetts topped the list, it was far from alone, with several other markets in the Northeast corridor from New York to Boston represented.
- We saw data on March sales for new homes, which illustrate the price versus quantity tradeoff we sometimes see. New home sales picked up from both last month and last year as prices slipped 6.2% from last March. Builders are managing pipelines with homes under construction shrinking even as completed homes for sale outpace unstarted offerings.
- The Realtor.com deep dive on new construction in the first quarter, my colleague Joel Berner showed that prices of new homes for-sale haven’t budged much in the last year, despite the slip in sales prices and their steadiness as a share of the for-sale market, comprising just shy of 1 in 5 homes for sale. The report also examined trends in the urbanicity of newly built versus existing homes noting that it’s much harder to find new builds in urban areas. There are markets where we see more new-homes in urban areas, including New York City, though it’s worth noting that many of these markets just have a lot of urban area, so most of the homes for-sale are urban. Scarcity is a factor driving higher prices for new construction in urban areas, which have the highest median price.
- Finally, in honor of Mother’s Day and the nearly 3 million homes with more than one mother under one roof, we released a report on multigenerational housing trends. My colleagues Hannah Jones and Jiayi Xu found that there are a growing number of multigenerational households in the U.S. and that they now make up 4.5% of homeowner households. This helps explain why homes with listing features that can accommodate multigenerational living get more demand–13.5% more page views per property–and come at a premium price: 22% more per square foot.
You can find all the details including the Realtor.com Market Clock, 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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