The Midwest is leading America’s spring housing rebound because of ‘buyers who are actually showing up,’ Realtor.com says

Spring housing season is here, and after years of stagnation, it’s finally a hot one. Contract signings rose 4.5% year-over-year in April—its strongest reading in three years—and new listings hit their highest level since 2022, according to Realtor.com’s Spring 2026 Housing Market Progress Report published Thursday. For three straight springs, mortgage rates, a housing affordability crisis, tariffs, inflation, and more have rattled buyers. Meanwhile, sellers held onto pandemic-era price expectations, leaving them unwilling to let go of their home for less than they thought it was worth. But now, both buyer and seller metrics are moving in the right direction since mortgage rates started surging from the sub-3% pandemic-era lows to the 6%-7% range today. And a lot of it is thanks to growing popularity in the Midwest housing market, which is proving more affordable for many Americans. Of the 50 largest U.S. metros, 21 saw both new listings and contract signings rise year over year, and the Midwest swept the leaderboard. Kansas City led with new listings up 12.5% and signings up 20.7%. Louisville followed at 13.6% and 18.9%, respectively, then Indianapolis (14.7%, 6.6%), Columbus (8.0%, 7.9%), and Cincinnati (10.8%, 4.7%). “For the first time in three years, we’re seeing contract signing growth that genuinely outpaces the trend of the recent past,” Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in the report. “Buyers have been sidelined, but they haven’t disappeared—they’ve simply been waiting for the right conditions. In the metros where sellers have come to market with realistic prices, buyers are showing up.” Why the Midwest is winning the housing market Simply put, the Sunbelt is losing its pandemic-era steam. Working professionals flocked to the sunny beaches of Florida when remote work became an option. But that popularity only made the housing market there more competitive and, therefore, more expensive. Now t