Housing professionals predict stable conditions on the housing market
Across the board, mortgage and real estate respondents on the HousingWire Pulse Q1 2025 Research shows that the housing market will be flat for the first three months of 2025. The majority chose “flat” when asked about the direction of home sales and home prices. The good news? HousingWire experts predict a more positive outlook for this year’s housing market in their recent 2025 Housing Market Forecast: The Path to Recovery.
Respondents were slightly more positive about the fourth quarter of 2024, which was collected before mortgage rates rose to 7%.
The HousingWire pulse survey for Q1 2025 provides valuable insights into the current state of the real estate market from a variety of perspectives: broker leaders, mortgage professionals, and real estate agents. This diversity provides a comprehensive insight into market dynamics.
In addition to the neutral stance on home prices and home sales this quarter, all three target groups unanimously responded that both mortgage rates and their enthusiasm for the market are also “meh.”
Challenges remain (almost) the same
While sentiment in the housing market may be flat, the challenges for real estate and mortgage professionals remained the same as last quarter, with the exception of real estate agents, who for the first time since this survey were primarily concerned with getting paid.
Here’s an overview:
Real estate agents top 5 challenges
- Increase production per agent
- Reducing operational costs
- Pressure on net/gross margins
- Train agents in new business practices
- Interest rates
Mortgage professionals top 5 challenges
- Interest rates
- Lead generation
- House prices
- Lack of housing inventory
- Loans disappear
Broker top 5 challenges
- Receive payment after settlement
- Business planning
- Connect to sphere
- Low stock
- Get ads
Looking ahead, it is essential that industry leaders foster collaboration, share best practices and adapt to changing market dynamics, especially in the new post-NAR real estate market.
HousingWire Pulse is a quarterly, forward-looking housing market and industry trend survey focusing on the real estate and mortgage sectors. The Q1 2025 survey had 319 respondents, with 48% in the real estate sector and 52% in the mortgage sector.
