The social media trend du jour is a flashback to 2016. Since it is best to compare full years of data in research, let’s compare 2015 to 2025 in real estate. If one reminisces about 2015, we can recall that this was the year the Apple Watch launched, Amazon debuted the Echo, households began asking Alexa to build their shopping carts, and Inside Out stole our hearts.
Recently, there has been some social media fodder about a swiftly shifting real estate market. However, the data helps give a clear picture. Data can help you level-set with what is really at play, rather than listening to doomsayers. Market conditions are different than a decade ago, as noted in a recent blog post, but there are additional housing market changes, which in turn has implications to REALTORS® and their firms.
Let’s take a look at 10 data points and how they have shifted over the past decade.
1. The 2015 Member Profile reflected a median of 11 transactions among REALTORS®, while the 2025 Member Profile reflected a median of 10 residential transaction sides among brokerage specialists. Only 5% of NAR members who are brokerage specialists had no transaction sides. The drop in transaction sides from 2015 reflects the housing market slowdown over the last few years, driven by limited inventory and affordability constraints.
2. The REALTORS® Confidence Index can provide the real estate market with a pulse on what is at play on a monthly basis. Days on market, while shorter today than in 2015, have lengthened in recent months. In December 2015, the median days on market were actually 58 versus 39 in December 2025. While days on market are longer, this has allowed negotiations to take place between buyers and sellers, which would have been unheard of in 2020 and 2021.
3. Distressed sales were still present in 2015 following the Global Financial Crisis. In December 2015, 8 percent of sales were distressed, versus just 2 percent in the last six months. Current lending conditions remain tight for recent home buyers, and housing equity continues to gain among homeowners. Even if a shock to one’s household did occur, only a limited number of owners would be forced to sell at a loss, as the data demonstrate.
4. Contract terminations were also higher in 2015 at 7% versus just 5% in the last month's data. The market was shifting in 2015 and adjusting to normalcy, but some transactions were still cancelled at slightly higher rates than seen today.
5. When reflecting on how real estate firms were reacting to changing market conditions, the Profile of Real Estate Firms tells an enlightening story as well. In the 2015 Profile of Real Estate Firms report, firms were asked about their biggest challenges over the next two years —51% cited profitability, and 46% cited keeping up with technology. Today, those responses have shifted considerably: 56% cite housing affordability, while at a distant second, 36% cite rising industry costs. Today’s real estate firms are most concerned about housing affordability.
6. Perhaps this is not a surprise when watching first-time buyers continue to struggle in the housing market. The share of first-time buyers in the primary residence market dropped to just 21% of home buyers from 32% in 2015. Housing affordability and the lack of affordable housing inventory continue to plague first-time buyers, while saving for a down payment is a top struggle for those shut out of the market.
7. Top-of-mind challenges for REALTORS® have shifted, just as they have for real estate firms, and finding a true pulse on buyers. In 2015, REALTORS® cited finding the right property as the most important factor limiting clients at 33%, followed by difficulty obtaining mortgage financing at 26%. In 2025, that had changed to housing affordability at 25% and the expectation that mortgage rates might come down (19%).
8. The real estate industry will continue to have new entrants and those who retire or find another career pathway. In the 2025 Member Profile, 15% of REALTORS® had been in real estate for under two years. This is one stat that is remarkably similar to 2015, when 17% of REALTORS® had two years or less experience.
9. Another factor that has not changed is the strength and resiliency of the real estate industry’s entrepreneurs. In the 2015 Member Profile, 79% of REALTORS® who are sales agents worked as residential brokerage specialists. In the 2025 Member Profile, it was found that the share is 65% as sales agents diversify their specialty area. Many have looked at property management and commercial as they expand their scope.
10. One thing is clear: despite ever-evolving challenges posed in the real estate market, buyers and sellers want and are using a real estate agent to buy and sell. Even within a decade, there has been an increase in agent use. In 2015, 89% of sellers and 87% of buyers used an agent during their real estate transaction. In the 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 91% of sellers and 88% of buyers used an agent to buy and sell.
