Zillow: The Buying Window Could Be Closing in These States

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The buying window could be closing in these housing markets. For the first time in years, inventory is dropping in once-strong buyer’s markets. Sellers are tired of waiting for offers and refusing to get lowballed, so more are staying put. With less inventory comes more competition, rising prices, and vulnerable buyers. So, which markets are most at risk? Senior Economist at Zillow, Kara Ng, joins us to share the latest data on the housing market. Buyers have realized mortgage rates probably aren’t going back to 5% any time soon, but with sellers opting to stay in their homes, are would-be homebuyers stuck between high rent and high mortgage payments? But there’s good news for new investors and first-time homebuyers. A new resource allowing buyers to get down payment assistance was recently released, helping those who don’t have tens of thousands saved for a down payment. Want a return to an affordable housing market? Kara shares the single biggest variable that’s stopping affordability (it’s not mortgage rates) and how, if we can solve it, every American could benefit. In This Episode We Cover Zillow’s latest housing market update, price prediction, and mortgage rate forecast Buyer’s market no more? How sellers are taking their housing market power back The real reason why no one is moving (and why the housing market is stuck) Zillow’s new down payment assistance resource for first-time homebuyers The one true solution to our affordability problem (it isn’t lowering interest rates) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1185 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We've been saying that it's a buyer's market, but is the buying window already starting to close?
0:05.0	This is a key point to understand if you're thinking about buying a new property in the coming
0:09.8	months. Are conditions better now, or are there better deals to come? Today, we're going to find out.
0:22.5	Hey, everyone, I'm Dave Meyer.
0:26.7	I'm a housing market analyst and the head of real estate investing at Bigger Pockets. Joining me today on the show is Dr. Kara, A Senior Economist on the Economic Research Team at Zillow.
0:33.0	Kara is going to share some insights on some data, Zillow recently released, which indicates
0:37.6	whether the current buyer's market dynamics are likely to remain steady or shift back towards
0:43.2	sellers. And then we'll discuss the impact of recent Fed cuts on mortgage rates and also some
0:49.3	really fascinating demographic data about U.S. homeowners. This episode is going to be jam-packed
0:54.9	with information that will give you a leg up against your competition in the housing market.
0:59.3	So let's bring on Kara. Kara, welcome to the Bigger Pockets podcast. Thank you so much for being here.
1:04.9	Of course. I'm happy to be here. Can you just tell us a little bit about what you do at Zillow?
1:09.6	Okay. So my name is Kara Ing and I'm a senior economist at Zillow.
1:13.7	And basically I get paid to nerd out on data and then share this insight with everybody.
1:19.0	Dream job.
1:19.5	It's kind of like my job.
1:20.5	It is the best job for people like us.
1:22.6	It's so good.
1:23.6	So tell us what are the big picture things that you're tracking?
1:27.8	What are the big trends that you think are important for our audience?
1:31.3	Okay, so there's lots going on today.
1:33.3	But one thing I want to flag is buyers who are waiting until spring or until, you know, something
	...

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