May 15, 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 15, Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale unpacks the April CPI report, where what colleague Jake Krimmel called “inflation contagion” pushed consumer prices to 3.8% year-over-year and more than wiped out nominal wage gains, pushing real earnings negative. She explains why, despite that sobering data, mortgage rates barely moved, slipping just 1 basis point this week.
- She then covers April existing-home sales, which edged up 0.2% to a 4.02-million annual pace, with the strongest price growth in the Northeast and Midwest reflecting persistent supply constraints in those regions. Danielle also highlights the latest weekly housing data from Realtor.com, where Hannah Jones highlights the standout signal is ongoing softening in listing prices, a sign that sellers are adjusting expectations upfront to create a friendlier environment for buyers this spring.
- Danielle then covers two research reports on the rental and luxury markets: the April Rent Report, marking a 33rd straight month of year-over-year declines with rents now roughly 5% below their peak, with Jiayi Xu noting signs that relief could continue, and the April Luxury Report, where Anthony Smith highlights the top 10% price is down 1.9% from a year ago, however, the he also covers emerging luxury markets where million-dollar listing counts are actively growing.
- Finally, Danielle shares findings from a new Total Cost of Ownership report from colleague Joel Berner, which finds that buying a newly built home saves roughly $25,000 in energy and replacement costs over the first 10 years compared to an existing home, with the largest savings concentrated in New England and the smallest in the South.
- 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:
- Your paycheck might be growing, but ‘inflation contagion’ just gobbled up those gains. I’m Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com® and today I’ll share why despite some frustrating macro headlines, there are some silver linings in the housing market. Mortgage rates were steady. Sellers are adjusting their price expectations upfront. Rents continue to soften, and we put a number on just how much you can save in operating costs by buying a new home. Let’s dive in!
- We saw just a few new economic data points this week, but they were impactful. First, we knew that inflation would run hot as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. Sure enough, this was clearly visible in the data, and not just in energy prices. My colleague Jake Krimmel called this “inflation contagion” and it more than completely gobbled up nominal wage gains, pushing real earnings down both from the prior month and prior year. Put simply, this report wasn’t good, but this news is tempered slightly by the fact that this was widely expected.
- This helps explain why mortgage rates didn’t budge much in response to the inflation data. In fact, they dropped 1 basis point lower this week. Some of this apparent nonchalance is also due to timing. This week’s mortgage rates included more pre-CPI days than post-CPI days in the sample. It’s also no guarantee of future performance, which will continue to evolve with the outlook. Any escalation in the Middle East is likely to push rates higher, while any signs of progress toward a broader deal could help rates slip further. In the meanwhile, home buyers can navigate this environment by rate-testing their budgets so that they can plan rather than just react. For more on mortgage rates, my colleagues Anthony Smith and Joel Berner have a full discussion in our weekly mortgage rate update video.
- In addition to inflation data, we also saw an estimate of Existing-Home Sales in April from the National Association of Realtors that showed home sales were relatively steady. Sales edged up 0.2% in the month to match last year’s pace of 4.02 million. Importantly, this gain was on top of an upward revision in the estimate for March home sales. Median home sales prices continued to rise, climbing just less than 1% from a year ago to $417,700, with the strongest growth in the Northeast and Midwest and a mild price decline in the South. Both regional price and sales patterns are consistent with findings in our supply gap analysis: limited housing supply is an acute pain point in the Northeast and Midwest and a less binding restraint in the South and West.
- Realtor.com weekly housing data continued to tread its recent path, with very little change in trends this week. My colleague Hannah Jones highlighted the ongoing softening in listing prices this week as the standout signal that suggests that sellers are adjusting their expectations upfront helping to create a friendlier housing environment for buyers this spring.
- For those not yet ready to buy this spring, the Realtor.com April Rent Report showed that rents continue to ease, marking a 33rd straight month of yearly declines for total relief of roughly 5% nationally. The relief was broadspread across unit sizes and geographies and there are signs that it could continue. Economist Jiayi Xu found that after pulling back from pandemic era highs, the multifamily construction pipeline is showing some resilience with starts picking up in the first quarter even as completions and units under construction continue to ebb. At its current pace, the rental housing stock is expected to grow by just less than 1% nationwide over the next year, with the strongest supply growth in the Northeast.
- Turning back to the for-sale market, the Realtor.com April Luxury Report found that luxury prices continue to soften, with the top 10% price down 1.9% from April 2025. Alongside softening prices, million dollar listings comprised a slightly smaller share of listings–13.5% down from 14.1% the prior year. But this isn’t happening everywhere. In the report Anthony Smith highlights emerging luxury markets–smaller areas where million dollar listing counts are growing suggesting an actively scaling high-end tier.
- Finally, in a new Total Cost of Ownership report, my colleague Joel Berner answers the question–how much can I expect to save in operating costs if I buy a new versus existing home? The answer: roughly $25,000 in lower energy and replacement costs over the first 10 years of ownership. That’s a nationwide average and the savings vary pretty widely from state to state. States in New England see the biggest cost-savings of new construction, due in part to heavy energy usage in this region. Southern states see a smaller operating cost advantage. It’s also worth pointing out that the price premium for new construction versus existing is the opposite; it costs much more to buy new vs. existing in the Northeast and less in the South. Put simply, new home buyers in the Northeast generally pay more upfront and reap bigger savings over time while new home buyers in the South see much smaller premiums or even discounts on new construction alongside lower operating cost savings.
- If you’re shopping for a new home, it’s worth thinking about the total cost of ownership in addition to the upfront pricing difference. The report found that in 16 of the top 300 metropolitan areas, the estimated 10-year operating cost savings of buying new construction fully covered the upfront pricing gap between the median new-construction listing and the median existing-home listing.
- 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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