What this spring looks like in real estate markets around the country

At the beginning of 2026, experts expected it to be a big year for homebuyers who had been sitting on the sidelines. In late February, interest rates briefly dipped below the all-important 6% threshold — a promising sign for affordability. And it seemed like those forecasts could come true.

Then President Donald Trump launched a war against Iran. As uncertainty grew, mortgage interest rates ticked back up.

The number of mortgage applications have taken a hit in the weeks since. So have pending sales overall, according to a Redfin report.

Denise Moore, a broker with Bradford Real Estate in Nashville, Tennessee, prefers to work with homebuyers. But this spring, fewer of them are ready to make a purchase.

“I still have the conversation. So it's not like they don't have the interest and they're not still anticipating jumping in and making a real estate purchase, they're just slower to make that decision,“ Moore said.

So while she’s less busy with showings and listings, she’s spending more time on marketing, education, and meeting with clients, “to generate business and to make sure I'm ready when the market does stabilize.”

The Redfin data shows pending sales are up year over year in Miami, Florida.

“The single family home market, the spring has been, the best spring we've had in probably the last two, three years,” said Joanna Jimenez, a Miami real estate agent and founder of The Opes Group at Compass.

She said she’s noticed buyers who had been on pause are coming back out. And some might not be worried about higher mortgage interest rates.

“If you go to some neighborhoods, it's 50% of the transactions are cash. Some neighborhoods is as low as 25% and some are even as high as 70%,” Jimenez said.

In the Greater Seattle area, Michael Orbino, managing broker of Team Foster at Compass, said the mortgage interest rates aren’t discouraging buyers altogether. But those buyers are getting choosier.

“All of a sudden, the tolerance for road noise, the tolerance for a poor floor plan, the tolerance for an outdated kitchen goes down because they think, like, ‘Look, if I'm going to pay top dollar and have what I perceive as a high interest rate, I want the best of the best,’” he said.

Orbino said buyers who used to look at 10 to 15 houses now want to see 25 to 30. Which means that he and his team are working seven days a week: Twice as much effort to maintain their typical volume.