Real estate customers rebounded in April as they assessed the impact of rising gas prices and mortgage rates. It may be just a moment.
Despite another chaotic start to spring, U.S. consumers may be signaling that they will be more interested in housing next year.
According to the latest research from Inman Dig Insights, prospective homebuyers were hit hard between January and April next year as gasoline prices soared due to the Iran war and mortgage interest rates rose.
But the latest episode could be far less disruptive and resolved more quickly than the uncertainty around tariffs that disrupted the market and depressed housing demand last spring, research suggests.
And over time, new signs are emerging that homeowners may be adjusting to today’s mortgage rate levels and becoming less resistant to the idea of testing the market.
In a report this week, Intel examines what potential customers think about the housing market.
competing considerations
With rising mortgage rates and upward pressure on gas prices weighing on consumers, it’s no wonder some are reconsidering whether it’s wise to buy a home this year.
The share of employed Americans who said they were willing to buy a home in the next year fell from 42% at the beginning of the year to 37% in April. Still, that share in April was 5 percentage points higher than in April 2025, when uncertainty surrounding a series of sweeping new U.S. tariffs sent the market into a tailspin and led some buyers to exit the spring housing market.
Remarkably, the recent interest rate shock from the Iran war has not led to an increase in the number of consumers who strongly intend not to buy.
No matter how low mortgage rates fall, just 24% of employed adults in the U.S. say they won’t buy a home at all this year, down from 25% in January and 27% this time last year.
Rather, since the dispute began, consumers have shifted to a wait-and-see approach.
The share of adults who said they would only buy a home if mortgage rates fell below 5% rose from 29% three months ago to 35% in April.
Interest rates below 5% are unlikely to materialize anytime soon. However, the fact that so many consumers are open to this kind of opportunity, rather than completely closed off to the housing market, suggests flexibility if conditions improve.
There are other signs that consumers are becoming generally less sensitive to changes in mortgage rates.
Among those who actively bought a home in April and said they had previously been reluctant to enter the market, an increasing number said they had overcome their discomfort with current mortgage rates because they thought they could refinance in the future. Last July, once-reluctant homebuyers were more likely to cite reasons related to the ongoing rebalancing of the market (more properties to choose from, fewer bidding wars, the potential for their home’s value to fall) to explain why they finally put it on the market.
In April, an increasing proportion of consumers felt that people were adapting to today’s higher price environment.
Among consumers who said now was a good time to put their home on the market in April, 32% agreed that consumers were getting used to current interest rates. This is up from 24% as of April 2025.
Due to the war and its impact on global energy markets, even fewer people said in April that now is a good time to buy a home than in January. But despite this sudden decline, general homebuying sentiment is more positive than it was in the spring of 2025.
Thirty-six percent of U.S. working adults surveyed in April said now is a good time to buy a home, down from 45% in January. But by April last year, that percentage had fallen to 30%.
Taken together, this data highlights a picture of potential homebuyers once again wary of an uncertain economic environment for the second consecutive spring.
But there’s a good chance their interest in the market will result in more transactions for real estate agents than last spring and summer.
About Inman-Dig Insights Consumer Research
The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey was conducted April 10-11 to assess Americans’ opinions and behaviors regarding homebuying.
The study sampled a diverse group of 3,000 full-time or part-time employed American adults between the ages of 24 and 65. Participants were selected to create a broadly representative breakdown by gender and region.
Statistical rigor was maintained throughout the study, and the results should be largely representative of attitudes held by U.S. adults with full-time or part-time jobs. Both Inman and Dig Insights are majority-owned by Toronto-based Bellinger Capital.
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