A Realtor.com study found a 21% increase in the number of outbound home searches from Fresno residents since 2019. Photo by Ran Berkovich on unsplash.com

Local Realtors say Fresno’s housing market is showing signs of stability, even as a recent study finds that more and more Americans are continuing to look outside of their current cities for housing. 

A Realtor.com report found that almost 60% of online home shoppers in the country’s top 100 metropolitan cities searched for homes outside of their local markets in the second quarter of 2025, a 10% increase from 2019.

The leading cities where online home shoppers searched for homes outside of their respective areas were San Jose (93.7%), Washington D.C. (86.4%) and Seattle (80.5%). 

Fresno also made the list of markets seeing more outbound searches, with a 21% increase since 2019. The research shows that rising home prices and shifting employment patterns are reasons for the increase. 

Fresno’s median listing price in June was $469,917, up more than 40% over the past six years. 

Despite this, Fresno and the Central Valley as a whole remain one of the leaders in affordability when it comes to living in California, according to local real estate experts. 

“I am seeing a stable and strong market here in the Central Valley,” said Don Scordino, a broker with Realty Concepts. “We hear a lot on the news about other states, but I think the Central Valley is still the affordability capital of California.” 

Rick Tomasello, sales manager and Realtor with Realty Concepts, shared the same message about Fresno being an affordability leader when it comes to large metropolitan areas in California. 

“Compared to the rest of California, Fresno remains one of the most affordable markets, which is a major advantage,” Tomasello wrote in his recent executive profile.

Scordino noted that higher prices have an impact on first-time homebuyers and working families, but the rise in prices is consistent with rental costs and other household expenses, keeping ownership appealing for many residents, which makes home ownership still the most important goal. 

The study also found that Fresno’s unemployment rate was 7.8%, higher than that of several other metros listed in the report. Scordino said that job stability often plays a larger role than the numbers indicate. 

“Most people who come to us to buy a home are secure in their jobs,” he said. “Now, we do get a lot of people that come to us and say, ‘I’m newer on the job, but I have this dream,’ and they want to get themselves set up to buy a home in a year or two.”

Scordino noted that some buyers are waiting on interest rates to go down before committing themselves to a purchase. 

“Many buyers are waiting for the rate cuts that have been supposedly coming for over a year,” Scordino said. “Many buyers have said, ‘Okay, I’ve waited long enough,’ and they are now buying. And that is something that is hurting our market. 

For sellers, Scordino said that supply could increase, but prices are unlikely to surge. 

“The more homes on the market, whether they be new construction or existing homes, will keep that extra supply, which will keep prices down to just basic supply and demand,” Scordino said. “I don’t see anything on the horizon that is going to make a seller put their home on the market other than their own personal objectives.”