Ahead of a spring market that appears to be skewing from trends seen over the last couple years, brokers are bracing for significant obstacles that stand to challenge buyers, with few easy solutions.
RISMedia’s latest Broker Confidence Index (BCI) found that, unsurprisingly, most brokers continue to view affordability and inventory as the largest obstacles for prospective buyers to enter the market. The survey also found that real estate business owners aren’t relying on any sort of creative tools or strategies to address these issues, mostly looking to lenders or helping clients expand their search.
“Interest rates along with affordability are keeping the market reasonably flat,” said Jim Fite, president and CEO of CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Company in Texas and Oklahoma.
Notably, overall confidence in the market also came in essentially flat in February, dipping from 6.1 to 6.0, as 2025 so far hasn’t seen the new year’s bumps felt in 2024 and 2023.
With sudden disruption from heavy-handed federal policy decisions under the new Trump administration, consumers appear to be hesitant about major financial decisions. It remains to be seen whether this will have an immediate impact on the traditional busy season for housing, or how tariffs, mass deportations or layoffs within the federal government will more directly affect the housing market.
According to the latest BCI, financing and affordability were most likely to be chosen by brokers as the largest obstacle facing buyers. Inventory was close behind, though a significant 23% of brokers reported inventory as a relatively minor barrier in their markets.
“The number of sellers is increasing daily, while the number of buyers is not keeping pace,” said one broker, who requested anonymity.
That would appear to reflect the assessment of many economists and analysts (including prominent financial firms like JP Morgan), who have predicted that efforts to increase inventory, along with lagging demand due to the aforementioned affordability issues, is pushing many markets to a more balanced place.
How brokers will adapt after several years of a market that strongly favored sellers will be closely watched, and the ability to close sales from the buy side is likely to become an even more valuable skill as these long-term systemic challenges persist.
“I believe we have more than enough demand to offset any inventory gains,” said Donny Samson, principal broker at Samson Properties in Virginia. “The result of this would be more transactions. More transactions helps all REALTORS® and real estate brokerages!”
Sharpest tool in the box
More important to real estate business leaders than any challenge is the tool or solution needed to overcome it. While many of the issues buyers face are far out of the control of the average broker, respondents were asked what tools they had to help buyers who struggled with financing, affordability or finding homes at the current inventory levels.
For the most part, brokers referred back to the standard practices the industry has long relied on—rate buy-downs, finding trusted referral partners or simply having buyers expand their search radius and criteria. A little over one in 10 (12%) brokers mentioned focusing on new constructions as an option that can specifically help with inventory issues.
That tracks with data over the last few years that has largely shown new homes hewing closer to existing homes in terms of price.
A similar proportion of brokers (13%) mentioned in-house lenders as providing reliable solutions for buyers who are struggling with financing. Other brokers added that they rely on their local MLS for data or insights as far as overcoming affordability or inventory challenges, and a handful simply said they feel like these issues are out of their control.
Notably, not a single broker referred to any particular tech tool, platform or third-party resource as something they would use in this upcoming market. After the housing market boom of 2020-21 brought a huge influx of investments in proptech, brokers do not appear to be embracing these high-tech solutions, at least in the current environment.
Some of those companies flamed out amid controversy and the headwinds of a slower market, while others are launching new tools for this new environment.
Respondents this month appeared more inclined to rely on their own insights and knowledge, though still with plenty of uncertainty around the broader economy and how federal policy will affect housing in the medium-term.
Samson and a handful of other brokers specifically pointed to federal policy and ongoing layoffs in federal agencies as injecting uncertainty into the broader market, with several saying they are in “wait-and-see mode” ahead of spring. While Samson operates in the Washington, D.C., region, the fact that brokers across the country are anxious about these things speaks to the magnitude of the potential disruption, as job reductions and cuts affect communities all over the country.
