We recently saw Zillow’s 10 predictions for 2026, now comes Redfin, who says a “Great Housing Reset” will take shape next year. They add that it won’t be a quick price correction, and it won’t be a recession, but it will mark the beginning of a long, slow recovery for the housing market.
The Great Housing Reset will take shape in 2026. It won’t be a quick price correction, and it won’t be a recession. Instead, the Great Housing Reset will be a yearslong period of gradual increases in home sales and normalization of prices as affordability gradually improves. It will start next year, with incomes rising faster than home prices for a prolonged period for the first time since the Great Recession era.
It won’t be enough to make homebuying affordable in the short run for Gen Zers and young families, who will be forced to make tradeoffs, from moving in with roommates or their parents to delaying having children. Politicians on both sides of the aisle will respond to the widespread housing affordability crisis, introducing policies to lower costs, from YIMBY measures to expanded manufactured housing. Some of those proposals will chip away at affordability, but they won’t be an instant fix.
Here are Redfin’s 11 predictions for 2026:
- Mortgage Rates Will Dip to Low-6% Range, One Factor Improving Affordability
- Homebuying Affordability Will Improve As Wages Grow Faster Than Prices
- Home Sales Will Rise 3%
- Rents Will Rise As Demand For Apartments Rises and Supply Falls
- High Housing Costs Will Reshape Households, With More Roommates and Fewer Babies
- Affordability Crisis Will Unite Policymakers Across Party Lines
- More Americans Will Refi and Remodel
- NYC Outskirts, Great Lakes Region Will Be Hot … Zoom Towns Like Nashville and Austin Will Not
- Climate Migration Will Go Hyperlocal
- NAR Will Let Local MLSs Call the Shots, Sparking Consolidation
- AI Will Become a Real Estate Matchmaker
Click here to read the full report at Redfin.
