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The real estate market is hot! No, it’s cold! Interest rates are too high! Rates are the lowest in three years!
Sometimes, it’s hard to know what to believe when it comes to the ever-volatile U.S. real estate market. With a seeming myriad of conflicting reports released one after the other, you could be forgiven for ignoring them all and going with your gut and basic math, calculating cash flow versus expenses and making a move.
However, there does appear to be one stat that various real estate economists can agree on: Fall 2025 could be the perfect storm—or as perfect as it has been in a while—for buying opportunities.
More Listings, Lower Prices, and Less Competition
Realtor.com crunched its numbers and proclaimed that the property gods had aligned, resulting in more listings, lower prices, and less competition.
“We are definitely seeing that seasonal bump in activity,” Salim Chraibi, CEO of Bluenest Development, told the listings site.
Specifically, new U.S. single-family home sales increased by over 20% in August—their fastest pace in three years, according to BBC News. Price discounts, builder incentives, and interest rate cuts have helped to create fluidity in the market, said the BBC.
“Now that rates have eased a bit, we’ve definitely gotten more calls from buyers and real estate agents interested in looking at our homes. In Miami, where housing is still limited, good listings do not last long; we see them go under contract in days,” Chraibi states.
The Pre-Holiday Rush
However, the U.S. is not a monolithic market, and different states and cities vary in the best time to buy. This year, fall is the most favorable.
“This time of year, there is also that natural push to get settled before the holidays. Families want to be in a new place before the end of the year, and buyers in general like the idea of starting fresh come January,” Chraibi adds.
“39% of Builders Have Cut Prices”
According to a report from the National Association of Homebuyers, 38% of builders say they have cut prices as of October. Along with incentives, this has enticed buyers back to the market in anticipation of lower borrowing costs fueled by Federal Reserve rate cuts. A ripple effect across the resale market has ensued, increasing demand as inventory has increased. However, the momentum is a light flow rather than a torrent.
The increase in new home sales “likely overstates any improvement in housing activity,” Oxford Economics’ lead U.S. economist Nancy Vanden Houten told the BBC, adding that month-to-month volatility remains high. Still, for investors interested in stabilizing income properties rather than short-term profits, the underlying trends are promising.
Prospective Investors Need to Take Opportunities When They Can
For investors with cash looking to increase their portfolios, fall 2025 could be an opportunity to do just that. Housing inventory is the highest it has been since before the pandemic. U.S. mortgage rates are the lowest they have been this year, but affordability is still keeping many homebuyers on the sidelines. With 2026’s real estate market far from predictable, now could be the best window to buy in a while, especially if an investor doesn’t mind taking on a renovation.
Chraibi said:
“Inventory is better than last fall, but it is still competitive. The well-priced and move-in-ready homes do not last long. That said, in areas where development has spread farther west or south, away from the urban core, even great homes come with trade-offs. What we are seeing is buyers able to look past that and focus on where they see long-term value.”
There Are Over 30% More Listings Than at the Start of The Year
There could be 32.6% more active listings on the market at the end of October than at the start of the year, Realtor.com predicts, translating into tens of thousands in savings compared to the peak summer months.
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Homes.com concurred, stating that nearly 450,000 homes came on the market in September, 22% more than the same time in 2024, according to the listing site’s data. Homes.com says that the peak buying time could be extended into early December for the warmer Southern states compared to the Northeast.
No Benefit in Waiting
“We don’t anticipate housing prices or rates to dramatically decline anytime soon,” Tim Lawlor, CFO at real estate investing lender Kiavi, told Yahoo! Finance. “Those wanting to invest in rental properties likely won’t see a significant benefit to waiting.”
Buying opportunities have not been lost on many investors—both individual and institutional—who have been prodigious in what has been a generally lackluster market. According to a report from CJ Patrick Co., using numbers from BatchData, investors bought one-third of all single-family residential properties in the second quarter of 2025—the highest percentage in the last five years.
Ivo Draginov, cofounder and chief innovation officer at BatchData, said in a press release:
“While investors purchased more homes than they sold in the second quarter, they did sell over 104,000 homes, with 45% of those sales going to traditional homebuyers. So in addition to the important role investors continue to play providing necessary liquidity to a weak home sales market, they’re also bringing much-needed inventory—both rental properties, and homes for owner-occupants—to the market.”
Final Thoughts
There’s no doubt that the last few years have been tough ones for real estate investors looking to grow their portfolios. Unless you have the good fortune of being able to buy with cash, navigating a high-interest-rate, low-inventory environment is fraught with risk.?
However, if you have the capital or can afford to put down a decent amount of cash, as we have seen by the prodigious amount of properties investors have bought, the lull in the market offers opportunities.
Additionally, the movement from institutional REITs to buy-to-rent communities, along with somewhat favorable buying conditions, means sitting on the fence is not likely to see any interest rate cuts offset by price increases.
Taking advantage of the current market could be a good idea. There’s no telling how long it will last.
