Following years of scarce inventory and high prices, real estate agents are increasingly sensing a shift toward equilibrium. In CNBC's latest quarterly survey, 44% of respondents reported a balanced market where neither buyers nor sellers hold a clear advantage. That figure increased from 30% in the third quarter of 2025, when the survey first launched.
"It certainly feels like, depending on the home, depending on the neighborhood, depending on the condition and the price point, that both the buyer and the seller do have a little bit of leverage," according to Jeremy Kane, an agent at EXP Realty in Denver. The survey by CNBC picks agents from all over the country at random. This quarter's responses were gathered from June 23 to June 30, with 53 agents contributing. Data from the National Association of Realtors shows May home sales increased 3% versus the same month a year earlier.
That uptick reflects growing supply and easing prices. Sellers are increasingly pricing their homes realistically, moving away from the aggressive expectations of the pandemic boom.
"No one really seems to be fighting me much on price like they used to," said Bruce Jones, who works with Compass in Nashville, Tennessee. "We're not really seeing huge decreases in prices. We've kind of plateaued, but I don't see people arguing too much about that. If it's priced correctly, it is moving."
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The proportion of agents noting at least one price cut on active listings tumbled to 57% in the second quarter from 89% in Q3 2025, according to the survey. Home prices remain slightly above last year, with the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller national index showing a gain of just under 1%. Meanwhile, Realtor.com reported that June asking prices fell 2.5% year over year, the steepest decline on record since tracking began in 2017, and the eighth straight month of drops.
"I always tell sellers that I'm in the business of selling homes, not storing them, and so you really need to put a property at the right price in order to get it sold," said Martha Thorn, an agent at Coldwell Banker based in Tampa, Florida.
With prices more aligned with current conditions, fewer deals are falling apart. Only 40% of survey respondents reported at least one contract cancellation in Q2, down from 51% in the first quarter.
Buyer worries have shifted. At the close of 2025, 26% of agents cited mortgage rates as their buyers' top concern; that share rose to 37% in the latest survey. Mortgage rates had dropped after last summer, reaching a low of 5.99% on the 30-year fixed in late February, based on Mortgage News Daily data.
They then climbed sharply in early March following the outbreak of war. The average 30-year fixed rate last peaked at 6.75% on May 19 and has since stayed near 6.6%. Inventory in June crept up just under 2% from a year earlier, per Realtor.com, while new listings increased 2.4%.
Currently, 1.1 million homes are on the market, compared with about 614,000 in June 2023, shortly after the pandemic housing boom.
Overall, agent optimism about future sales has faded dramatically. Only 19% of respondents anticipate improvement in the near term, a steep drop from 48% in Q3 2025. A majority (67%) expect sales to remain steady.
While the national trend points toward balance, local conditions vary. "The challenge isn't a lack of buyers, it's a psychology gap," according to Joel Eronko of Nicholas Joel Realty Group in Houston. "My focus this quarter is keeping clients focused on real-time, hyper-local data rather than national economic headlines."
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