Americans who plan to buy or sell a home in 2026 are pessimistic about the overall economy, but positive about the prospects of the housing market – especially when it comes to their own future sale or purchase.
A new study from Clever Offers surveyed Americans preparing to enter an uncertain real estate market and found that many buyers and sellers who spent the last two years waiting for the market to turn are now ready to do business. But nearly all expect a rough experience, and a majority believe the economy is trending in the wrong direction, suggesting they may feel pressured to act. However, even though consumer sentiment is overwhelmingly negative, the housing market is still strong, and most real estate professionals are anticipating a big year.
Where Buyers and Sellers Agree— and Where They Don’t
In general, home buyers and sellers don’t feel very good about the U.S. economy. Nearly everyone surveyed (93% of respondents) expected challenges to their financial stability in 2026, and 40% are worried that they might not be able to keep up with their housing payments in the coming year due to the economy.
Two-thirds of buyers and sellers (65%) believe inflation will get worse in 2026, compared to 77% of the larger population, and 55% expect a recession or depression. Forty percent of 2026 buyers and sellers think the real estate market could crash next year.
Meanwhile, political views on the economy are largely polarized. Just under half of 2026 home buyers and sellers (48%) believe the government is taking the right actions to address economic concerns, while the same number (48%) said they’re falling behind due to the current administration’s economic policies.
Americans Still Believe In the Housing Market
Amid all the economic doom and gloom, the housing market is a conspicuous bright spot. Seventy-three percent of buyers think 2026 is going to be a good year to buy a home, and 72% of sellers think it’ll be a good year to sell. If most Americans think the economy is in for a rough patch, most also believe that the real estate market will be an exception.
Ultimately, nearly everyone is braced for adversity; 98% of both buyers and sellers expect to face challenges during their real estate transactions next year. One interesting finding is that while most buyers and sellers agree on the state of the market, the outliers are far apart. A majority of home buyers and home sellers generally agree that their most likely price point for a home transaction in 2026 is right at the asking price. Over half of 2026 buyers (54%) expect to pay the asking price, and 61% of 2026 sellers expect to sell for their asking price.
However, expectations diverge sharply as one moves away from the median. Thirty percent of buyers think they’ll pay below the asking price, while 27% of sellers believe they’ll sell for above the asking price. This could be the product of different markets; buyers in slower markets would be correct to anticipate a discount, while sellers in hot markets could reasonably expect a lucrative sale. But it could also be the product of sentiment, which means that one of these groups is going to be left disappointed.
Many experts believe it will take some time before consumers feel comfortable enough to make big purchases like homes. “Heading into 2026, I expect consumers to continue feeling cautious about the economy, especially when it comes to housing,” says financial expert Bola Sokunbi, author and founder of Clever Girl Finance. “High interest rates, affordability challenges, and economic uncertainty have made many people hesitant to buy.” But Sokunbi isn’t surprised that sellers seem more positive about the market than buyers do. “Sellers are often more optimistic because of limited inventory and the equity they’ve built over time.”
The Market Could Be Primed for a Boom
For optimists, there’s some support in the data for a thriving market in 2026. Just over half of 2026 buyers (51%) said that they stayed on the sidelines in 2024 and 2025 because of market concerns, while 42% of 2026 sellers said they opted against listing their home in the previous two years because of concerns that market conditions weren’t right. In some markets, they were correct; more recent sellers have ended up pulling their listing after getting little interest, or sold their home to a real estate investor paying cash or a tech-backed iBuyer for less than market value.
All this pent-up supply and demand coming onto the market in 2026 could lead to a market that far surpasses the sales activity of 2024 and 2025.
Yet, whether the 2026 market is boom or bust shouldn’t necessarily matter to how consumers prepare today, financial expert Sokunbi stresses. “For consumers, the best preparation is to not try to time the market. Instead, focus on personal readiness,” she says. “That means building savings, reducing debt, protecting your credit, and understanding what you can realistically afford before making any housing decision. The people who feel most secure in 2026 will be those who planned for multiple scenarios, not just the best-case one.”
Agents Are Anticipating a Great Year
Many real estate agents believe 2026 is going to be a good year. Among those surveyed, sentiment among real estate professionals is substantially more positive than the general consumer mood. Over three-quarters of agents (77%) say they’re optimistic about 2026; 76% are feeling positive about housing availability, and 62% think first-time buyers will have more opportunities in 2026. Eighty percent think it’s going to be a good year for agents and brokerages, and 63% expect a more stable market next year.
Jeb Smith, an agent based in Orange County, CA, holds a positive but more moderate view. “I think 2026 is shaping up to be the most balanced and predictable housing market we’ve seen since before the pandemic,” Smith says. “We’re not heading into a boom or a crash. Inventory is rising, prices are stabilizing, and the pace of the market is slowing in a healthy way. A lot of the gloomy consumer sentiment right now is more emotional than factual. People are still anchored to 2021 expectations or the affordability shock of 2022. But a normal market isn’t a bad market. Stable prices, more choice, and time to negotiate actually favor prepared buyers who are willing to make decisions based on facts instead of fear.”
However, there are some important areas where buyers and sellers are more positive about the future market than agents are. Fifty-five percent of buyers and sellers think home prices are going to rise in 2026, while only 42% of agents do. And nearly a third of agents (30%) think home prices will decline next year, while only 16% of buyers and sellers do.
Considering how positive agents are about next year’s overall market, these areas of exception might be worth taking seriously from an insider’s perspective.