Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin, Tribune Content Agency
Every year, Ilyce and Sam offer buyer, seller and personal finance resolutions. This year, they’re adding some trends and predictions for 2026.
If 2025 taught us anything about real estate, it’s that the old playbook is being rewritten. Between mortgage rates stuck for most of the year well above 6%, insurance costs that shocked homeowners, and the rapid development of AI tools that can value your property in seconds, the housing market has been anything but predictable.
As we look at 2026, the question isn’t whether the market will change. It will. So will real estate tools and the way real estate agents do their business. The real question is: Are you ready?
From 3D-printed and robot-built homes to climate disasters reshaping where Americans can afford to live, here are a few trends that will define housing in 2026, and beyond.
1. The Great Housing Gap: A generation left behind.
Here’s a number that should alarm everyone: 1.6 million. That’s how many expected Gen Z and millennial households didn’t form in 2024 — not because they didn’t want to, but because they couldn’t afford it.
One of the more optimistic views of the housing industry comes from J.P. Morgan Private Bank, which estimates we’re currently short 2.8 million homes. They believe solving this could take a decade. (Others estimate we’re missing twice as many homes.) Realtor.com calculates it will take 7 1/2 years at current construction rates.
Young people aren’t buying homes because they can’t. They’re living with parents longer, delaying marriage, postponing children — supposedly because homeownership has been priced out of reach. (We believe that younger generations are time-shifting important adulting milestones due to the overall high cost of everything, including rental housing, food, health care, college, etc., and that income simply hasn’t kept pace.)
What does this mean for 2026? Prices will keep climbing, though slower than last year. Fannie Mae projects 3.6% growth, while the National Association of Realtors believes prices will climb just 2% to 3% if rates stabilize or rise slightly. But remember: When you have 100 buyers competing for 70 homes, sellers still hold the cards.
2. Mortgage rates — the new normal nobody wanted.
Remember when everyone said rates would plummet in 2025? They didn’t. And 2026 isn’t looking much better.
The consensus is telling: expect 6% to 6.5% for most of 2026. Fannie Mae projects 5.9% by year-end, the Mortgage Bankers Association says 6.4%, Redfin and Realtor.com split the difference at 6.3%.
For those still waiting for a return to sub-3% mortgage, here’s a reminder that those pandemic-era 3% rates were an anomaly. The 4% mortgages from 2013-2019 might be the “good old days.”
For buyers, the math is brutal. The median home at $410,800 with a 6.3% mortgage and 20% down means about $2,500 monthly in principal and interest alone. Add taxes and insurance, and you’re over $3,000 in many markets. The typical household now needs 44.6% of income to afford a median-priced home — far above the traditional 30% guideline. That’s making it simply unaffordable to buy a home for many Americans.
3. The office is dead. Long live the home office.
Remote work is not a trend. It’s the new architecture of American work.
Despite return-to-office mandates, 22.1% of Americans work remotely — more than triple the pre-2020 rate. According to Robert Half, “over the course of 2024 and 2025, the rates of hybrid and remote work have stabilized, reinforcing that flexible work arrangements are here to stay.”
More telling, 85% of workers say remote work matters more than salary when evaluating a job. For these employees, remote work isn’t a perk — it’s essential.
This trend is reshaping what homes need to be. Formal dining room? Obsolete. Second bedroom? Now two home offices. Open floor plans need private spaces with doors that close.
Remote work drove 15% of home price increases between November 2019 and November 2021, accounting for over 60% of the overall surge. People save 72 minutes daily in commute time. That’s more than 10,000 hours over a 40-year career. Would you trade an extra bedroom for 10,000 hours of your life?
For working parents, 65% say remote work better supports their families. This isn’t philosophical — it’s survival. Which means remote work isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
Ilyce Glink is the author of “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask (4th Edition).” She writes the Love, Money + Real Estate Newsletter, available at Glink.Substack.com. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.com. Copyright 2026 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Stay up to date with area Real Estate and Home & Garden news information with the latest e-edition version of atHome Colorado online
This article is brought to you by atHome Colorado, your weekly insight into real estate, design, and community trends, published weekly by the advertising and marketing department in the Boulder Daily Camera, Loveland Reporter-Herald, Greeley Tribune, and Longmont Times-Call