Is The Market Stuck?

Is The Market Stuck?

Continuing the conversation…talking about a changing market, one that’s still transitioning from record highs in 2021-2022, to something very different in April of 2026. The other day, I overheard a frustrated agent exclaim: “This market feels like it’s stuck in place! Buyers are acting like it’s 2008 and way too many sellers think it’s 2022 all over again!” 

The 2008 part is a reference to the once-in-a-lifetime Great Recession (2008-2012) and the perilous plunge that the market took into something that felt like an abyss, on the heels of the subprime loan debacle.

For a couple of years, it was going down so fast that no one really knew where the bottom was and very few buyers wanted to risk purchasing only to see their new house value plummet another 40% six months later. (In hindsight, the few who mustered up the courage were amply rewarded with appreciation over the next decade, most beyond their wildest dreams.)

And of course, 2022 is a reference to the all-time, crazy market we reached in the early covid era (seems like a lifetime ago already) when the paradoxical effects of the global pandemic drove demand and properties were flying off the market with ten offers, all-cash, no contingencies and at 30% above list! (In hindsight, many of the buyers who got caught up in those auctions have been sorely disappointed when they’ve tried to resell their homes in the last few years.)

It goes without saying that neither of those two analogies comes close to the reality of what’s happening in the market right now. While we most definitely aren’t at the peak anymore, it’s still a pretty good seller’s market as long as sellers temper their aspirations and do everything they can to prepare, present and price their listings effectively. Median prices are a little lower but not that far off of their all-time highs.

And it’s definitely not anywhere close to being 2008 in most buyers’ minds.  Anyone who thinks that,  wasn’t involved in selling real estate during the Great Recession and has no idea how bad it can get when the bottom drops out and huge numbers of foreclosures and short sales start spiking the inventory.  Right now,  there’s a fair amount of optimism in buyer ranks and more people are out kicking tires and going to open houses.  In fact the number of house sales in the first quarter of 2026 is up a healthy 15% over last year. 

So,  with interest rates inching down, the number of sales creeping up, and prices more or less steady, what’s holding the market back? What’s causing the “stuckness”  that’s frustrating so many agents, buyers and sellers? 

More Next Week…