Key Details:
- Realtor.com’s 2025 Consumer Attitudes and Usage Study shows buyer regret falling from 15% to 8% and zero-regret purchases rising from 31% to 37%.
- Homes spent a median of 63 days on market in October 2025, giving buyers more time to make decisions.
- Generational data shows 60% of Boomers had no regrets compared to 27% of Gen Z buyers.
Buyer remorse is finally cooling along with the housing market.
That’s one of the biggest takeaways from Realtor.com’s new 2025 Consumer Attitudes and Usage Study, which shows a sharp decline in how many recent buyers feel they overpaid or made the wrong decision.
Byron Lazine broke down the report on a recent Hot Sheet, noting that this shift matches what many in the industry have been experiencing in real time.
The big story is the drop in regret around price. The share of buyers who believe they paid too much fell from 15% in 2023 to 8% in 2025.
“You had buyer regret in late 2022. Trying to jam a purchase on the low rate before the rates went up, and paying in a bidding war, you had a lot of buyer regret late ‘22, early ‘23.”
At the same time, buyers reporting no regrets increased from 31% to 37% in 2025.
With homes sitting on the market a median of 63 days in October 2025, which is 13 days longer than in October 2023, buyers have more time to evaluate options and avoid snap decisions.
But that’s not the only reason regrets are on the decline.
A Slower Pace Is Creating More Confident Buyers
According to Laura Eddy, Vice President of Research and Insights at Realtor.com, the shift is clear:
“As the market has shifted from a fast-paced sellers’ market to one that gives buyers more breathing room, we’re seeing buyer regret trend down. Today’s buyers are generally more qualified, taking extra time to weigh their options and make confident decisions.”
Key data from the report shows how this confidence is taking shape:
- Homes sat a median of 63 days in October 2025, which is 13 days longer than October 2023.
- Regret about overpaying dropped from 15% in 2023 to 8% in 2025.
- Buyers with no regrets rose from 31% to 37% over the same period.
More time on market typically leads to more thoughtful choices, but this year’s numbers also reflect improvements in how you’re preparing buyers before they jump into a purchase.
With slower conditions and better expectation-setting, buyers are entering the market with a clearer understanding of what they can afford and what trade-offs actually matter.
The Most Common Regrets Buyers Experienced in 2025
Even with the improvement, regret still shows up in predictable places. These patterns matter because they highlight the conversations that reduce (if not eliminate) unwelcome surprises after closing.
The top challenges buyers faced in 2025 included:
- 16% reported more home maintenance than expected.
- 15% had to spend more on household items than anticipated.
- 14% said their savings account was empty after closing.
- 11% faced higher ownership costs, which is 5 percentage points lower than 2023.
- 10% worried about rising interest rates affecting future payments.
- 9% felt the home was not in the condition they expected.
- 9% said they rushed their decision.
- 9% said the house was too small.
- 8% said they paid too much, a 7-point improvement from 2023.
- 8% wished they had completed an inspection.
- 8% wished they had asked for buyer contingencies.
- 8% said they did not consider external factors like noise or traffic, up 4 points from 2023.
These are issues you can anticipate and address through clearer expectation-setting and more thorough walkthroughs before writing an offer.
As Byron pointed out, the responsibility for homebuyer regrets over unexpected maintenance costs lies right at their agent’s feet.
“More home maintenance than expected… To me, that’s a very poor job by the agent. You should have a customer that has realistic expectations on what home maintenance costs. We talked about that plenty of times, that 1% to 3% of home value goes back into the home as maintenance, not improvements, every year…
“Walk your customers through the cost of homeownership. They’ll thank you later.”
Older Buyers Feel More Confident, while Younger Buyers Face More Surprises
The generational split in the data is sharp. Experience and financial stability shape buyer satisfaction more than anything else.
Here’s how confidence levels break down:
- 60% of Boomers reported zero regrets.
- 45% of Gen X reported zero regrets.
- 34% of Millennials reported zero regrets.
- 27% of Gen Z reported zero regrets.
Younger buyers were significantly more likely to face unexpected costs or skip key protections like inspections. They also struggled more with lifestyle trade-offs, including commute distance and neighborhood fit.
Here are some of the generational detail points from the report:
- Empty savings: 9% Gen Z, 15% Millennials, 10% Gen X, 6% Boomers.
- Wish they had inspected: 12% Gen Z, 9% Millennials, 6% Gen X, 4% Boomers.
- Home too far from work: 11% Gen Z, 8% Millennials, 3% Gen X, 2% Boomers.
- Did not consider external factors: 10% Gen Z, 8% Millennials, 9% Gen X, 1% Boomers.
- Paid too much: 10% Gen Z, 9% Millennials, 7% Gen X, 7% Boomers.
For you, this reinforces the value of slowing the process just enough to anticipate the questions buyers may not think to ask.
You can prevent most regret by expanding the conversations you have before buyers write an offer:
- Break down expected maintenance costs.
- Prepare them for the lifestyle implications of the neighborhood.
- Make sure they understand ownership expenses beyond the mortgage payment.
When you eliminate surprises upfront, you give buyers the clarity and confidence they need to join the 37% who report no regrets at all.
This also creates an ideal moment to apply Byron’s “no surprises” framework.
“There’s a framework of scripting for this we want to use:
‘Hey, I want to walk you through what the inspection report is going to look like, so there are no surprises when we get it. We expect it to be long. Inspectors are paid to find a lot of items. I want to walk you through the cost of owning a home just like this, so there are no surprises after you close.’
“No surprises. Basic third-grade language to say, ‘Oh, what should I expect? What am I not seeing?’”
Byron’s scripts for talking through cost, condition and long-term trade-offs line up directly with what buyers say they wished they’d known sooner.
When you see patterns like this in national data, it’s a good reminder that clarity is the best form of protection buyers have.
