Home prices across the country are growing more slowly, conditions which will likely please neither buyers on the sidelines of a market that’s still unaffordable, nor owners who saw neighbors sell for bonanza prices just a few years ago.
Price changes differ between various data providers. The real estate data analytics provider Cotality estimates the national average increase at 1.2% between September 2024 and September 2025, down from earlier this year. Redfin, the national brokerage, calculates the September annual gain at 3.1%.
And the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced Nov. 25 that prices had increased 3.26% between the third quarter of 2025 and a year earlier.
There’s a lot more agreement on how hard it is for many Americans to afford to buy.
“As of mid-September, with 30-year rates at 6.26%, it required $2,148, or 30% of the median household income, to make the monthly principal and interest payment on the average-priced home,” according to the October ICE Mortgage Monitor report. That’s lower than during the summer, but still 5.4 percentage points above the long-run average.
