Housing markets where homebuyers have gained the most power, as told by days to pending

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s Resi Club in your inbox? Subscribe to the Resi Club newsletter. The spring 2022 housing market was one of the most competitive periods on record. In many housing markets, homes went pending within days of hitting the market as buyers rushed to lock in mortgages before rates moved higher. Four years later, the landscape looks very different. According to Zillow data, the typical U.S. home listed for sale in May 2026 went pending after roughly 18 days—three times longer than the 6-day national median recorded in May 2022. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Median days to pending offers a timely glimpse into the supply-demand equilibrium of local housing markets. Because homes typically go pending weeks before they close, the metric often captures shifts in market conditions sooner than closed-sales data. If homes begin taking longer to go pending, it can signal that buyers are gaining leverage. Conversely, falling days to pending may indicate a market that’s tightening. The maps below show just how dramatically conditions have shifted across the country. LEFT: Median days to pending in May 2022 RIGHT: Median days to pending in May 2026 While homes are generally taking longer to sell almost everywhere, the slowdown has been far more pronounced across many parts of the Sun Belt. Large portions of Florida, Texas, and the Southeast have seen median days to pending rise sharply since the pandemic-era housing boom, reflecting a market where inventory has increased and buyers have gained leverage. By contrast, many markets across the Northeast and Midwest remain relatively tight. In numerous metros across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinoi