Sellers outnumbered buyers by nearly 500,000 nationwide in June, giving buyers more negotiating power across much of the country. But that leverage offers limited value when the homes for sale remain outside a client’s budget.
A July housing market report classified 33 of 47 major metros as buyer’s markets. Seven favored sellers, while the remaining metros were considered balanced. A separate affordability measure shows that the available inventory still does not align well with local incomes in many markets.
For agents, the two data sets produce four possible combinations of negotiating leverage and listing affordability. Each calls for a different client strategy.
Where buyers hold more leverage
The report defines a buyer’s market as one with more than 10% more sellers than buyers. Markets with more than 10% fewer sellers favor sellers, while those within that range are balanced.
Miami had an estimated 140% more sellers than buyers in June. Nashville followed at 129%, with Houston, San Antonio, and Austin also among the strongest buyer-favoring markets.
Years of homebuilding expanded supply in several Sun Belt metros, while high prices and mortgage rates limited demand. Buyers in these markets may have more room to request price reductions, closing-cost assistance, repairs, or other concessions.
Seller-favoring markets were concentrated mainly in the Northeast, where limited construction and low resale inventory kept competition tighter. Nassau County, New York, had 38% fewer sellers than buyers. San Francisco was the only Western metro classified as a seller’s market.
Metro classifications remain directional. Buyer totals are modeled from touring, active-listing, and pending-sales data, so agents should confirm conditions within the client’s location and price range.
Where listings match local incomes
Negotiating power does not show whether buyers can afford the available homes. A housing mismatch analysis compares the distribution of for-sale listings with local household incomes.
The national Listing-Income Alignment Score rose from 66.7% to 74.9% in the year ending March 2026. It remained below the pre-pandemic baseline of 84.4%.
Middle-income households earning about $75,000 could afford 23% of listings nationally. In a balanced market, that income group would have access to about 44%.
The metro results ranged from 39.4% in Los Angeles to 107.4% in Toledo, Ohio. The score measures whether listings are distributed across price points in proportion to local incomes. It is not the share of homes a particular household can afford.
The mismatch is concentrated at entry-level and middle-income price points. That pattern is also visible in recent data on where new housing supply is falling short, even as total inventory improves in parts of the country.
Four combinations agents may encounter
Buyer leverage with stronger alignment: Buyers may have several attainable options and enough negotiating room to compare concessions, repairs, and price adjustments.
Buyer leverage with weaker alignment: Sellers may be flexible, but clients may still need to widen their search area, reconsider property type, or revise their payment target.
Seller leverage with stronger alignment: Limited inventory and a wider range of attainable listings may support competition for homes that are priced and prepared well.
Seller leverage with weaker alignment: Scarce affordable inventory may support prices even when many local households cannot reach the homes listed for sale.
The leverage figures cover June, while the latest alignment scores use March data. Neither measure should be treated as a real-time local index.
Apply the framework to the client’s budget
Agents can identify the closest scenario by comparing the local buyer-seller balance with the number of active listings inside the client’s approved price range. For sellers, that means evaluating nearby competition before relying on a metro-level buyer’s-market label and pricing to current conditions. For buyers, it means separating theoretical negotiating power from homes they can realistically finance.
A market may favor buyers on paper while offering few attainable choices. The most useful guidance accounts for both leverage and affordability.