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What's ahead for the housing market in 2026? For Marketplace, I'm Nova Saffo, and for David Brancaccio. As the year winds to close,

we've been looking ahead to 2026. And today we consider the fate of the housing market,

which has been weighed down by rising home prices, high interest rates, and climbing insurance

premiums. Marketplaces Amy Scott has been looking at forecasts and joins me now with more. Hi, Amy.

Hey, Nova. So let's begin by describing where the housing market is right now. How would you describe it as we close out the year?

Yeah, well, it's overall been pretty sluggish. Of course, there are big regional differences, but sales have been pretty flat.

And that's just because affordability remains such an issue for people, you know, trying to get into the market.

So mortgage rates have come down.

You know, they were closer to 7% when this year started.

Now they're in kind of the low 6% range for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

But that hasn't been enough to offset the really high prices that are keeping a lot of would-be buyers on the sidelines.

And then home sellers, you know, many of whom have these ultra-low interest rates from the

pandemic, have just had a hard time

parting with those rates and moving. So we've seen a lot of houses taken off the market or

deals that fell through. And as folks have been telling me, you know, overall, no one walked away

happy from this housing market. Oh, boy. That's a tough market.

And what's the outlook for 2026?

Well, most economists I've been talking to and realtors are expecting some improvement,

a modest pickup in sales.

I've seen ranges from 1 to 3 percent increase in sales, though the National Association of Realtors is sort of

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