According to data, in the week ending January 20th, the market seems to be moving in this more typical direction.

Sabrina Speianu, the economic data manager at realtor.com®, pointed out that in the past week, the real estate market has shown early signs of recovery, with median listing price growth slowing down, inventory of homes for sale increasing, and mortgage loan rates dropping by more than a percentage point from their recent peak. This is good news for homebuyers as the rate of price increases is gradually slowing down, and there are more options available in the market.

The latest data from Freddie Mac shows that in the week ending January 25th, the average mortgage loan rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.69%. However, this number has "remained within a very narrow range over the past month" (last week's average rate was 6.60%). This indicates that mortgage rates are gradually stabilizing.

Additionally, the new year has brought a significant amount of new homes for sale, which has been rare for quite some time. In the week ending January 20th, new listings of homes for sale increased by 3.4% compared to a year ago.

Although this growth rate is lower than the 7% increase of the previous week, "newly listed homes have remained above last year's levels for the 13th consecutive week," Speianu pointed out. Meanwhile, active listings (a measure of new and existing homes for sale) increased by 8.6% compared to the same period last year. This marks the 11th consecutive week of annual growth.

Encouragingly for buyers, there are currently no signs of inventory growth slowing down. This means that buyers have more choices, and sellers can find more potential buyers in the market.

However, it is important to note that market developments are influenced by various factors, including inflation rates, employment data, and Federal Reserve policy decisions. It is expected that in the coming months, as inflation approaches the target, the Fed may consider lowering interest rates, further driving the development of the real estate market. Buyers and sellers can decide whether to enter the market based on their own situations and make decisions before the competition intensifies.