Phones are chirping, For Sale signs are sprouting and sun beams are warming up those open houses. Peak season is here.
“2026 has started much better than 2025—it started with showings,” Carlos Martell, SRS, says. “And that already tells me there is hope and there are people looking and people having a different perception.”
After three years of stagnation, leading housing economists, including NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, predicted a year of more home sales. High oil prices are a current—perhaps temporary—concern, Yun notes, as they will push up mortgage rates. Still, he says, the market looks to be more energic.
That’s welcome news for Martell, a broker-associate with eXp Realty in Aventura, Fla., who’s already noticing a difference amid mortgage rate improvements from last year.
“People are looking, people are making offers; showings are happening,” says Martell, who primarily represents sellers. “So, I see that there is a different attitude toward the market right now, and I think it’s going to get better before the year-end.”
Cam Mason, an agent with Keller Williams Indianapolis Metro North and owner of Waypoint Realty Co. in Indianapolis, shares that confidence.
After his team beat their sales numbers year after year, 2025 was “a hold-steady year.”
“And yet, I would say, in a year where so many people’s businesses were down 20%–30% in some markets, for us to be able to hold steady, we were very, very pleased with that,” Mason says, adding that “we are super, super excited for the year that we are already having.”
Mason’s not the only one who’s optimistic.
The National Association of REALTORS® asked its members if they’re predicting a busier spring season compared to last year. Their confidence in more buyer traffic shot up—27% to 37%—from the same time as last year. Their confidence in an increase in seller traffic? Still higher than last year, but less pronounced.
Martell says he’s noticed a shift in the last few years with Aventura moving from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. That shift is backed by data, with housing inventory steadily increasing since April 2022 and giving buyers more options, according to Realtors® Property Resource.
Mason, who deals primarily with millennial and Gen Z first-time home buyers and repeat customers, says mortgage rates aren’t sidelining his clients, even the ones considering stepping away from COVID-era 3% mortgage rates.
“We’ve got several divorce situations, we’ve got people relocating because of work [and] we’ve got people getting married and moving together,” he explains. “Or we have a lot of situations where people are wanting to start families … so the people that I would say are making moves, it’s because life has happened.”
NAR named Indianapolis a 2026 “housing hot spot,” in part because of its strong share of millennial households, at 37%, and affordability factors.
“Our affordability is really strong here compared to the national average,” Mason says, adding that Indianapolis attracts people from across the country, including its neighbor to the west, Chicago.
“You can buy an incredible home for half the price, and then your taxes also are half,” he says.
