With summer and an end to the spring market on the horizon, home sellers and buyers appear to be evenly matched in Greater Boston.
The two sides are closely matched, according to seasonally-adjusted estimates from listings portal and brokerage Redfin. Its economists think there are 12,354 homebuyers and 11,914 homesellers in the market.
Redfin economists’ estimates suggest that the gap is closer than last April, when there were 9 percent more buyers than sellers compared to just 4 percent this April. That’s the closest spread since at least 2016, barring the COVID-19 lockdown period of April 2020, according to the company’s historical data.
The number of sellers in the Greater Boston market rose 11.8 percent year-over-year, compared to a 5.4 percent rise in buyers despite hopes that April’s falling mortgage rates might lure more first-time buyers into the market.
But with the seemingly-perennial shortage of inventory in Massachusetts, buyers are still faced with limited options, which can help drive up prices. The statewide median single-family sale price rose 2.4 percent year-on-year in April, according to Banker & Tradesman’s publisher The Warren Group. The median single-family sale price ended the month at $645,000.
That trend is somewhat at odds with the national picture, where early indications of a buyer’s market appear to be giving way as the year marches on.
“Homebuyer demand has been dwindling for months, but finally ticked up in April thanks to a strengthening job market and declining recession risk. More house hunters entering the market helped narrow the gap between the number of buyers and sellers,” Redfin Senior Economist Asad Khan said in a statement about the national home-sales picture. “If the number of buyers continues to grow, more homeowners may see it as an opportunity to list their homes, helping bring the market out of this deep freeze.”
One possible reflection of this shrinking gap between buyers and sellers: In Greater Boston, the number of single-family and condominium listings with a price cut rose year-on-year, a separate Redfin analysis of MLS data found, with 21.9 percent of home sales having a price cut in April of 2026. That compares to 15.6 percent in April 2025, according to seasonally-adjusted historical data compiled by the firm.
Nation-wide, 35.4 percent of sellers cut their asking price in April, down from 35.6 percent a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. Additionally, 13.4 percent of homes that went under contract in April were canceled, down just 0.1 percent from a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis.
On the buyer side, the rocky economic picture doesn’t appear to have a strong impact. Only 10.7 percent of pending sales in Greater Boston were canceled, a Redfin analysis found, a 0.7 percent drop month-over-month but a 1.1 percent increase year-over-year.
Banker & Tradesman staff writer James Sanna contributed to this report.




