Will rising inventory dampen New England’s summer heat wave?

Housing market conditions in New England are currently some of the hottest in the nation. But while the region’s housing market is still strong compared to many regions, like the Sun Belt, things have slowed compared to a year ago.

“The directionality of the national trends is similar in New England — inventory is up compared to a year ago, but there is still an inventory crunch,” said Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow. “We are also seeing the median age of inventory, which is how old a typical home has been on the market, creeping up, and that tells me that homes that are attractive, marketed well and priced correctly are still moving.”

It’s still a sellers market

Local real estate professionals throughout the region are noticing the same trends.

“We went through COVID with nine to 10 offers over every house, maybe the demand is half of that now, but there are still three or four people who would like to buy every home we have on the market,” Andy Smith, the broker-owner of New Hampshire-based firm Badger Peabody & Smith, said. “Inventory is growing a little bit, but I’m not going to go out on a limb and say it’s a balance market — it is still a sellers’ market, just not what it was a year ago.”

In New Hampshire, the median days on market is up by one week from 21 to 28 days and single-family inventory has risen to 1,982 homes from 1,450 homes.

Similar trends are occurring in other parts of the region. Amongst the other five states in the region, Massachusetts had the largest annual single-family inventory increase, jumping from 4,782 listings in July 2024 to 6,265 listings in July 2025.

Connecticut had inventory jump less than 300 listings to 3,312. Rhode Island saw the state’s median days on market double to 28 days. Vermont posted a nearly 400 listing inventory gain to 1,462 listings. Maine’s inventory rose by over 1,000 listings to 3,275.

Data trends are consistent

These data trends follow what Dava Davin, the broker-owner of Maine-based firm Portside Real Estate Group, said she and her agents are seeing.

“In Maine, we see some shifting, but we are still leaning more towards a seller’s market with 3.5 months of inventory statewide,” Devin said. “In Southern Maine, we only have 2.2 months of inventory, and we see closed prices meeting the asking price.”

In Connecticut, Kamil Andrukiewicz, the broker-owner of New Haus Group, said that even though buyers and sellers are a bit more hesitant due to mixed messages from the federal government on interest rates and potential changes to the capital gains tax, his business remains strong.

“It is still busy. There are pockets that are showing a little bit of a slow down here and there, but we have one property in Newington right now that had 70 showings, so the buyers are out there,” he said. “And we are still seeing a lot of cash. Every time my buyers lose a bid, and I call and ask why, it is because the other buyer was all cash with no contingencies.”

A ‘happy’ shift

Although some may be weary of this year’s cooler market, Anthony Lamacchia, the broker-owner of Lamacchia Realty, is happy to see the shift.

“Inventory going up is a wonderful thing because the market needs to reset so that we can go on another solid 10-year run,” Lamacchia said. “We can’t have prices going up 10%, 20% a year like during the pandemic — it isn’t healthy. We are at the highest inventory levels for the past six years, which is great news for buyers. Many are wondering if this is a good time to buy or if it is going to be like 2008 and prices are going to collapse, but we had nearly five times more inventory on the market then. So, we have more inventory, but we don’t have an over abundance.”

Mike Simonsen, the founder of Altos and Compass’s chief economist, agrees with Lammachia’s assertion.

“The economic trends we are see [coupled with] the higher interest rates are affecting everybody, and that means inventory will continue to pick up and demand may weaken due to affordability, including in New England, but we are still a long way from having old normal levels of inventory,” Simonsen said. “It is rising, but it is coming off of ultra-low levels. If we have another year at high rates we might start to see a more even market.”

Far from a buyer’s market

Despite this, Simonsen feels the region is still far from hitting a buyer’s market, but the good news is that with the rising inventory levels, home price appreciation has slowed slightly.

“Even last year, some of these states had strong price appreciation at 7% or 8% and that will be more like 5% or even 2% this year,” Simonsen said. “4% or 5% per year is normal price appreciation, so we are getting back to normal.”