Housing Watch: Fresno County home sales show signs of improvement as sellers adjust pricing

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Central Valley housing market has not seen the same summer surge experienced in some other sectors, but real estate experts say there are encouraging signs of increased buying activity.

Fresno County is among the regions that have seen a rise in home sales, according to Realtor.com Senior Economist Joel Berner.

"We're seeing, you know, year-over-year improvements in terms of the number of homes being sold. That's year-over-year improvement from 2025, which was a 30-year low in terms of home sales," Berner said.

Berner said sellers have adjusted their expectations and are increasingly pricing homes to attract buyers from the start.

"We're actually seeing fewer price reductions than we were at this time last year because sellers are coming in at a slightly lower point, ready to sell the home instead of kind of trying to play this Dutch auction game of pricing really high and then cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting," Berner said.

He added that homes that remain on the market for extended periods can become less desirable to potential buyers.

While purchasing a home has become more difficult, Berner said he does not believe interest in homeownership has faded, particularly among younger Americans.

"We're seeing slightly slower pickup for homeownership among younger cohorts, but that's really due to the affordability challenges in place. I don't think there's anything fundamentally different about younger Americans that makes them less interested in homeownership. They're just facing these affordability challenges," Berner said.

As a result, Berner said younger buyers have not been able to catch up as quickly as previous generations because of affordability challenges.

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