Real Estate Company Blog

The Future of Open Houses: Are They Still Effective in 2026? Every Saturday afternoon, agents across America unlock lockboxes, set out sign-in sheets, arrange cookie platters, and wait. Sometimes buyers come. Sometimes they come, eat the cookies, and leave. Sometimes nobody shows up at all. The open house has been a fixture of residential real estate for over a century. But in 2026 — in a world of 3D virtual tours, AI-powered property matching, and buyers who have already scrolled through 200 listings before picking up the phone — does it still make sense to hold one? The honest answer, backed by data and the experience of thousands of agents, is more complicated than most real estate coaches want to admit. Open houses are not the seller’s marketing tool they’re often promoted as. For sellers, their track record of directly producing a buyer is poor. But for the agent sitting behind that folding table? A well-run open house is one of the most efficient lead generation systems in the bu...

What Buyers Want in 2026 That Most Agents Still Ignore Home Buyer Trends 2026 The real estate industry has a perception problem. While agents debate commission structures and bicker over portal policy, buyers have quietly evolved. They've changed what they want, how they search, what they expect from the professionals they hire — and how quickly they'll walk away from anyone who doesn't deliver. If you've spent more than five minutes on social media in a real estate group recently, you've seen the complaints: slow response times, agents who disappear after the offer is submitted, a lack of real data, and zero transparency on process. Those complaints aren't from one bad apple buyer. They represent a systemic gap between what buyers want in 2026 and what most agents are still delivering. By the Numbers: The 2026 Buyer Landscape 73% of buyers say they'd switch agents mid-search due to poor communication (NAR 2025) 81% of first-time buyers under 35 begin their ...

The 2026 Spring Real Estate Market A Detailed Assessment for Buyers, Sellers, and Investors Data through March 2026 — Zillow Research The Year the Music Stopped The spring 2026 housing market does not look like any spring in recent memory. After three years of compounding price gains , a brief stall in 2024, and a wobbly 2025, the U.S. housing market has now arrived at a true inflection point . The typical U.S. home is worth $366,019 as of March 2026 — an all-time high, but only by a hair. Year-over-year, the national ZHVI is up just +0.44% . Adjusted for inflation, that is a real-dollar decline. And Zillow’s own twelve-month forecast for the U.S. as of March 2027 is exactly 0.0% . Flat. For the first time since the pandemic-era boom, the model is openly forecasting a year of nominal stagnation. But the national average is hiding the real story, which is that the United States is no longer one housing market — it is two housing markets moving in opposite directions. The Midwest and N...

The 10 Best and 10 Worst Real Estate Markets in America Right Now: A Data-Driven 2026 Ranking Updated for May 2026 | Based on 7 weighted metrics including price growth, days on market, inventory, affordability, insurance burden, foreclosure rates, and economic fundamentals. The U.S. housing market in 2026 looks nothing like the market that defined the last five years. The pandemic-era Sun Belt boom has reversed in dramatic fashion, with cities like Cape Coral, Austin, and Phoenix bleeding value while Northeast and Midwest metros quietly post the strongest gains in a generation. National home prices are projected to be flat or down roughly 1% by year-end, but that headline hides one of the largest regional divergences in modern real estate history. This in-depth ranking analyzes the 10 best and 10 worst real estate markets in the country as of May 2026, scored across seven critical metrics that matter to buyers , sellers , investors , and real estate professionals . The data is drawn ...

Jefferson County Colorado Evergreen, Conifer, Morrison, Golden and Bailey Real Estate Market Update Spring 2026 Evergreen, Conifer, Morrison, Golden and Bailey Prepared by Dan Skelly   Colorado and Florida |  Orson Hill Realty / eXp Realty 303-503-8793  |  danny@orsonhillrealty.com  |  OrsonHillRealty.com - Evergreen: The market is fairly priced on adjusted basis. You don't need to dramatically undercut comps. Price at or within 5% of adjusted closed PPSF and let the property show. - Conifer: Highest absorption ratio (1.82x). Correctly-priced Conifer listings move. Don't leave money on the table chasing a Golden price that the Conifer comp set doesn't support. - Morrison: Already the most efficiently priced market. Small ask/paid gap means the market is doing its job. Price at comp, present well, and trust the process. - West Golden: Strong absorption + moderate gap. The Genesee/Lookout Mountain premium is real and comp-supported. Lead with views, trail access, and Denver ...