A new piece from HousingWire landed in my inbox this week, and it's one of the more interesting national housing reports I've read this year. The headline finding: even though inventory is rising across the country, homes are actually selling faster, not slower. That sounds like a contradiction. It isn't. And what it tells us about Vermont, when you put their data next to ours, is genuinely useful if you're thinking about buying or selling here.
Here's what HousingWire is saying, what the national numbers actually mean, and how Chittenden County and Vermont stack up.
The HousingWire Thesis
The article's core finding is that the U.S. housing market is getting better at converting available listings into closed transactions, even with mortgage rates still putting pressure on buyers. National inventory is up about 2.3% year-over-year. But absorbed listings (homes that actually went under contract) are up 17.5%, and new pending sales are up 10.7%. That's a market that's working harder and clearing inventory more efficiently than it was a year ago.
HousingWire's argument is that the story in 2026 isn't really about how much inventory is hitting the market anymore. It's about whether a given market is capable of clearing the supply that hits it. Markets where sellers reset their pricing expectations early (Houston is their poster child, with strong sales velocity even amid elevated price cuts) are clearing inventory well. Markets where sellers are still anchored to peak pricing (Austin, parts of Florida, parts of Dallas-Fort Worth) are seeing the worst of both worlds: lots of price reductions and slow sales.
The takeaway for agents and clients, in their words, is that pricing conversations now have to start with current absorption, current price-cut share, and current days on market. Last year's comps are not a useful guide.
That's the national story. Now let's look at Vermont.
How Vermont Compares
When I put our local data next to the national numbers, the picture that emerges is striking. Vermont, and Chittenden County in particular, looks less like a market that needs to do the painful pricing reset HousingWire is describing, and more like a market that quietly never let the gap between sellers and buyers get that wide in the first place.
Three numbers tell the story.
Price reductions: 13.4% in Vermont vs. roughly 34% nationally.
This is the one I want you to sit with. Nationally, about a third of all active listings have taken a price cut. In Vermont, the figure is 13.4%. That is roughly one-third of the national rate. It means the vast majority of Vermont sellers are pricing close enough to where the market actually is that they don't need to reduce. There are a few reasons for this. Vermont didn't see the same speculative price escalation in 2021-2022 that Austin, Phoenix, or much of Florida did. We had appreciation, but it was more measured. Our inventory has been chronically tight for years, which keeps demand pressure on every reasonable listing. And Vermont sellers, in my experience, tend to listen to local pricing advice more readily than markets where every house feels like a hot commodity.
Selling over asking: 37% of Chittenden County homes in the past 60 days.
More than a third of homes in our market are selling for more than the seller asked. That's not a struggling-to-clear-inventory market. That's a market with real, active buyer competition for well-positioned listings. The national HousingWire piece doesn't give a comparable figure, but it implies a much smaller share. The fact that 37% is selling over asking while only 13.4% need price reductions tells you something important: Vermont sellers, broadly, are pricing accurately, and buyers are responding.
List-to-sale price ratio: 98.3%.
Vermont sellers are getting, on average, 98.3% of their list price. In a market like Naples, Florida, where HousingWire reports 44% of sellers cutting prices about 5% and homes still sitting 105 days, that ratio is dramatically lower. A 98.3% ratio means our market is operating on a tight, healthy band between asking and accepting. There's negotiation, but it's modest. There's no chasm between what sellers want and what buyers will pay.
Days on Market: Same Speed, Very Different Reasons
HousingWire's national data shows median days on market varying widely (some sources put the national median around 91 days, while certain hot metros are much faster). Chittenden County is sitting at 23 to 28 days across every price band, as I covered in my last post.
What's worth understanding is that we're moving fast for a different reason than Houston is. Houston is selling quickly because sellers have aggressively reset pricing to match what buyers will accept. We're selling quickly because the gap between seller expectations and buyer willingness was never as wide here in the first place. Both produce fast-moving markets, but the dynamic underneath is different. Vermont's speed comes from structural tightness and realistic pricing. Houston's comes from sellers absorbing real losses to clear inventory.
That distinction matters for what comes next.
What This Means if You're a Vermont Seller
The HousingWire article spends a lot of time warning sellers that comps from a year or two ago are not a useful guide. That warning applies less acutely in Vermont than it does nationally, but it still applies. Our 5.4% year-over-year median price increase means recent comps are still relevant, and pricing accurately to those comps is the single most important thing you can do.
If you've been holding a price expectation rooted in 2022 or early 2023, you may need to recalibrate down slightly. But if you're pricing to what comparable homes have actually sold for in your neighborhood in the past 90 days, you are very likely to be in the 86.6% of Vermont sellers who don't need to reduce. The market is not asking you to take a haircut. It's asking you to be honest.
What This Means if You're a Vermont Buyer
The national narrative right now is full of "buyers are gaining leverage" headlines. That is partially true in markets where sellers are absorbing meaningful price cuts. It is much less true in Vermont. With 37% of homes still selling over asking and a list-to-sale ratio of 98.3%, the leverage shift hasn't really arrived here. You are still operating in a market where competitive offers, clean financing, and quick decision-making matter.
What has changed is that you have slightly more inventory to choose from than you did a year ago (154 active listings versus 146). And homes outside the most competitive price bands ($1M+ and certain condos) are taking longer, which gives you more room to negotiate. The opportunity for buyers in Vermont right now is more nuanced than the national headlines suggest. It exists, but it requires knowing where to look.
The Bottom Line
HousingWire's national report is a reminder that the U.S. housing market in 2026 is fundamentally about pricing alignment. The markets that are working are the ones where sellers and buyers have closed the gap between expectations and reality. Vermont, almost by accident, has been operating that way for years. We never had the speculative excess that other markets are still working through, which is why our data looks healthier on almost every measure that matters.
That doesn't mean every Vermont listing sells, or that pricing doesn't matter. The two listings I'm still puzzled about from my last post are evidence that even in a healthy market, presentation, marketing, and the small details still decide outcomes. But it does mean that if you're a Vermont seller pricing realistically and presenting your home well, the data is on your side. And if you're a buyer, the leverage shift the national headlines are talking about hasn't really shown up in our market yet.
