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This month we take a closer look at mortgage rates, affordability, the Spring market, and home pricing.

Mortgage Rates & Affordability

Mark Fleming, the Chief Economist at First American, recently said “Geopolitical developments can certainly create short-term volatility. Energy price spikes can briefly push yields and mortgage rates higher as investors hedge against the risk of near-term inflation.”

There is no doubt that mortgage rates are volatile right now. Since the recent geopolitical developments, the average 30-year mortgage rate has increased from 6.0% to 6.46%.

However, this past week did see a slight drop (after increasing over 5 straight weeks) to 6.37%. To put this into perspective, the average selling price on a home in Tallahassee right now is about $340,000. At the current mortgage rates, that’s about an $80 difference in the monthly payment since the first week of March 2026.

Today’s buyers may be wondering: Is now a good time to buy? First, that is highly dependent on your particular situation. However, the important thing to note here is that homes are still increasing in value – or appreciating. In Tallahassee, home price appreciation is between 2.5% and 2.8% annually. What this means for buyers is that if you bought today, you would realize that appreciation in your home’s value. It also means that as you delay your purchase, your future home is increasing in value, and will likely be more expensive as time goes on. Now, that’s not to say that means now is the right time to buy for every buyer on the market. Again, your specific situation (financially and otherwise) plays a bigger role in if now is a good time to purchase a home. If you are thinking about house hunting right now, a resource may be the Monthly Homebuyer Class at the Main Library downtown. In this workshop, local real estate agents and lenders are available to answer questions specific to your situation – without pressure to buy or any awkward sales pitches.

Despite the volatile mortgage rate environment, affordability has improved. This is because, recently, incomes have been rising faster than home prices.

The Spring Market

Inman just came out and said, “Despite recent global and economic volatility, the spring market is showing signs of positive momentum.” Nationally, new listings jumped up 21% in February, which is a larger than typical seasonal surge. While Tallahassee did not see an increase at that level, we did see that increase between February and March. This is good news considering that, nationally and locally, we are seeing a low number in terms of housing inventory – in general, there just simply are not enough homes on the market when compared to the number of buyers on the market. So, more homes coming to market can help tilt the scale to be more favorable towards buyers.

Home Pricing

There has been an interesting trend of homes selling below the price they are listed at. You can see this clearly by looking at home sales prices all the way to 2012.

In 2021, we saw once-in-a-lifetime home value increases after the pandemic. The vast majority of homes were selling at or above the listing price. And, since then, you can sort of see the reality of today’s market. This is not 2021. We are returning to the more typical figures we saw prior to the market disruption of the pandemic, but we still have a little way to go. It is happening slowly, but sellers are trending towards more realistic listing prices.

Pricing your home to the market value is essential.

Bottom Line

•  Mortgage rates are simply unpredictable right now in the current geopolitical environment.
• Spring 2026 should continue the recent positive momentum. 
• Home price appreciation has returned to a more historically normal range.

March 2026 Tallahassee Market Statistics