Existing home sales climbed 1.3% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.
It's the second straight monthly gain and a sign that buyers are slowly wading back into a market that spent most of last year frozen solid.
The median existing-home price hit $398,400, up 3.8% from a year ago.
That marks 32 consecutive months of year-over-year price increases — a streak that has outlasted two mortgage rate spikes, a presidential election, and endless predictions of a housing crash that never came.
Here's the catch for anyone hoping to buy this spring: inventory is still tight.
There were 1.24 million homes for sale at the end of February, up 17% from a year ago but still well below the 1.9 million units that was normal before the pandemic.
At the current sales pace, that's about 3.5 months of supply.
What's actually moving the needle is rates.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage has hovered in the low 6% range for weeks, down from the 7%-plus peaks of 2023 and 2024.
A buyer financing $350,000 today pays roughly $400 less per month than they would have at the worst point.
That difference is what pushed many sidelined households off the fence.
First-time buyers made up 31% of February sales, up slightly from 26% a year earlier.
That's still below the historical norm of around 40%, but it's the strongest showing in months.
Investors, meanwhile, pulled back to 15% of purchases — their smallest share since 2021, as rising insurance costs and softer rent growth eat into returns.
Sales rose in the Midwest and South, where prices are more forgiving, but fell in the Northeast and West, where sticker shock still rules.
In markets like Austin and Phoenix, sellers are cutting prices and offering rate buy-downs for the first time in years.
In Chicago and Cleveland, bidding wars are back on well-priced listings.
The takeaway for buyers: this is not the market of 2021, but it's not 2023 either.
You have more time to negotiate than you did during the frenzy, and sellers are more willing to talk.
For sellers, the message is simpler — pricing matters again, and overreaching will cost you weeks on the market.
Our take: the housing market is thawing, not boiling.
If you've been waiting for a sign that conditions are improving without a full-on frenzy returning, this is probably it.
Final Thoughts
Just don't expect prices to fall meaningfully anytime soon — inventory would need to double first.