Homebuying Trends That Shaped the 2025 Housing Market
The 2025 housing market was largely defined by the impacts of affordability challenges. Would-be buyers responded to rising prices by holding back from making purchases, while builders struggled to sell off inventory. However, even with the national median sales price reaching $360,000 last year, 3.9 million homes sold in 2025, according to property data provider ATTOM's Year-End 2025 U.S. Home Sales Report.
While prices reached new peaks in 2025, the profit on home sales declined. The typical home sale netted $118,710 in gross profit, equating to a 49% return on investment. In 2024, the typical home netted a gross profit of $124,500 for a profit margin of 55%.
Homeownership tenure grew in 2025
As an increasing number of sellers and buyers stood on the sidelines in 2025, homeownership tenure grew. Those who sold their homes in Q-4 2025 had owned them for an average of nearly 9 years, an increase from about 8 years in both Q-3 2025 and the same time the year before.
The metro with the longest homeownership tenure prior to sale in Q-4 2025 was Barnstable, Mass. Prior to selling, homeowners in this market owned their homes for an average of slightly more than 14 years. Springfield, Mass., followed with a tenure of 13.5 years, and then New Haven, Conn., with a tenure of 13.4 years.
Median sales prices grew in a majority of metros by the end of the year
Median sales prices were up compared with 2024 in 107 (or 80.5%) of the 133 metros analyzed in the Attom report.
At 12.9%, Birmingham, Ala., saw the largest year-over-year increase in home prices, followed by Syracuse, N.Y., which recorded a 11.6% increase, and then Toledo, Ohio, which recorded a 10.4% increase. Rochester, N.Y., and Dayton, Ohio, both recorded year-over-year increases of 10.3%.
Despite growing sales prices, home sale profits declined—especially in Florida
Profit margins on a median-priced home sale were lower in 2025 than in 2024 in 114 (or 87.7%) of the metros analyzed in the report. Of the top 10 metros with the largest declines in profit margins, nine were in Florida.
North Port, Fla., led the way, with profit margins down by 24 percentage points in 2025. Cape Coral, Fla., meanwhile, saw profit margins decline by 22 percentage points, and in Deltona, Fla., they declined by 22 percentage points.