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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 70 October 2025 J O U R N A L home ownership for buyers prepared to put in sweat equity. There were 79,175 fixer-uppers listed in July 2025, up an estimated 18.8% from July 2021 (66,619 listings). However, their percentage of listings has decreased, from 6.1% in July 2021 to 5.2% in July 2025, mak- ing them somewhat less common than they were four years previously. Although it still takes a little longer for fixer-uppers to sell—53 days on average compared to 50.5 days for comparable homes—the difference has decreased dramatically since 2021. Buyer behavior has changed due to rising mortgage rates and property prices, which makes the strat- egy of purchasing cheaper properties and building sweat equity even more alluring. For fixer-upper prospects, a few metro areas stand out due to their abundance of listings and substantial discounts. The Midwest and Northeast often have the highest concentration of fixer-uppers, whereas the Midwest and South typically have the best deals on these properties. Curiously, new construction is typi- cally the least common in markets with the highest concentration of fixer-uppers. The supply of housing cannot keep up with demand in areas where land is limit- ed or construction is subject to regulatory obstacles. Because of this, older, less expensive properties are excellent options for remodeling and for buyers who are ready to take on a project. With a few more Northeastern metros included in the fixer-upper availability group and a few more Southern ones in the fixer-upper discount set, the Midwest is well-represented in both lists. It makes sense that there are more fixer-uppers in the Northeast because homes there are often older. It makes logical sense that older residences in the South are giving more of a discount because homes there are typically newer. New Orleans acts differently from the rest of the South since it is an older me- tropolis than even many in the Northeast. Curiously, the median listing prices for single-family houses are already lower than the national median in all of the markets with the biggest fixer-upper discount. This implies that rather than being a percentage of property value, the fixer-upper discount—that is, the price to get a fixer-upper down to the median—is more fixed. The markets with the lowest fixer-upper discounts, such as Honolulu and San Jose, California, have very high median listing prices, mostly because of the higher land prices. The proportion of freshly construct- ed homes on the market is strongly inversely correlated with the proportion of fixer-uppers. The best markets for fixer-upper activity are those with a high demand for homes but a limited supply. In certain metro areas, new construction is frequently prohibited by legislation or by the scarcity of reasonably priced land. These metro areas' older, less costly resi- dences are therefore excellent prospects for remodeling. 2025 EXPERIENCES STRONGEST BUYER'S MARKET IN MORE THAN A DECADE I n August, the U.S. housing mar- ket had an estimated 35.2% more home sellers than purchasers (or, in numbers, 505,915 more)—according to a recent report from Redfin. The only month since 2013 where sellers outnum- bered purchasers by a larger percentage (36.3%) was June 2025. To put it another way, this summer's buyer's market was the best recorded. Since home prices are still rising, albeit much more slowly than in previous years, and mortgage rates are declining but still more than double their historical low, many Americans have been priced out of the housing market. The U.S. housing market saw an esti- mated 1.44 million homebuyers in August, the lowest number since 2013, with the ex- ception of the start of the pandemic, when the market came to a complete halt. Due to rising home prices and high mortgage rates, the housing industry has been losing purchasers. However, in recent weeks, mortgage rates have decreased, reducing monthly payments for homebuyers by hundreds of dollars and encouraging more homeowners to refinance. "We haven't yet seen a big jump in homebuyer demand due to declining mortgage rates," said Chen Zhao, Redfin's Head of Economics Research. "Buyers may show up in greater numbers if mortgage rates keep falling, which could happen if the economy continues to weaken. If the economy slows further, the