Startup profile: Houwzer
- Founded by: Mike Maher
- Year founded: 2014
- Headquarters: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Sector: Real Estate
- Funding and valuation: $134 million raised
- Key ecosystem partners: Telora, HomeRise
After a half-decade of housing-market whiplash, from the pandemic bidding wars to the slowdown fueled by high interest rates, Houwzer’s Dave Speers says the Mid-Atlantic is looking relatively steady.
“It’s definitely gone from a speed game, where you had to move super fast and overpay, to a strategy game,” Speers, the head of product and marketing for Houwzer’s parent company Newfound, told Technical.ly. “Now when it comes to buying properties, it really depends on what you’re buying and what you’re buying for.”
“It’s definitely gone from a speed game, where you had to move super fast and overpay, to a strategy game.”
Dave Speers, Houwzer
Houwzer launched in 2014 in Philadelphia as a tech-enabled real estate brokerage with a mission to modernize how people buy and sell homes. In 2022, the company acquired Trelora, a Denver-based discount brokerage with a similar model and strong presence across western states. The merger created the umbrella company Newfound, which now includes Houwzer, Trelora and DIY real estate platform HomeRise.
Today, Newfound operates in 40 states, giving Houwzer far broader reach than its original Mid-Atlantic footprint. Speers said the combined network not only expanded the brand but also created practical advantages, making it easier to support people moving between markets and giving the company stronger shared infrastructure across its brands.
So does “steady” mean it’s a good time to buy? We asked Speers for his take on the market, and advice for potential buyers in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Housing market conditions: A Mid-Atlantic snapshot
During the COVID housing frenzy, Speers said, buyers routinely waived inspections and bid far above asking. But after interest rates spiked in 2022–24, reaching as high as 7.79%, the market slowed sharply. Homeowners who refinanced at 2–3% during the pandemic locked themselves into ultra-low monthly payments and were reluctant to sell, often choosing to keep homes they were moving out of as rentals, contributing to historically low transaction volume.
In summer 2025, US home sales dropped to levels not seen since the 1990s, despite a much larger current population.
The Mid-Atlantic, per Speers, has been more stable than regions like Florida and Texas, where some areas saw double-digit price drops from their peak. Rising insurance costs tied to extreme weather are also pushing some buyers away from Sun Belt states and toward more temperate regions like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
Still, the Mid-Atlantic, with its large share of federal workers and contractors, was especially hard hit by the 43-day government shutdown this year.
“It had a big freezing effect on activity this fall,” Speers said. “A massive impact that I don’t think we’ll realize until the official reports come out in the next couple months.”
Within the region, there are multiple markets, including Philadelphia, DC and Pittsburgh, each with its own subdivisions. For example, Speers called out these Philly-adjacent submarket trends:
- Philadelphia proper: Inventory in the city is improving. As of late 2025, Speers said the city has around 3.84 months of supply, the closest to balance it’s been in years. A balanced market, in real estate terms, is 5-7 months of inventory (more and it’s a buyer’s market, less and it’s a seller’s market). New apartments and the tightening of short-term rental rules are pushing more units back onto the market.
- Philly suburbs: By contrast, suburban inventory remains extremely tight, with less than half of the city’s supply. Pandemic-era demand for space and yards never truly cooled, and limited new construction has kept the market constrained.
- Jersey Shore: The bright spot for Mid-Atlantic buyers. Shore towns currently have the highest inventory in the region, a winter pattern that feels amplified by macroeconomic cooling. Speers says buyers waiting for a Shore deal “may find this year to be a good opportunity.”
Looking ahead, Speers expects real estate transaction volume to rise in 2026 as interest rates continue sliding back toward the low-6% or possibly high-5% range. But he also warned that if rates drop too quickly, the market could shift back into a buyer feeding frenzy, and a repeat of early-pandemic competition.
Advice for Mid-Atlantic homebuyers
Despite the current state of the economy and still-high interest rates, now might be a good time to look for a house, if you’re up for searching for hidden gems rather than browsing through lots of available houses.
“There’s a trade off between deals and options,” Speers said. “Right now is good for deals.”
Here is his advice for homebuyers heading into 2026:
1. ‘Date the rate, marry the house’
“This is a common saying in our industry,” said Speers. “Buy when rates are still a little bit higher and it won’t be a feeding frenzy, and then, when it’s time, refinance.”
2. Hunt stale listings
“Look at homes that have been on the market for more than 60 days,” Speers said. “These are not bad homes. They were just overpriced two months ago, and these sellers are tired and ready to negotiate.”
3. Use the winter months to find deals
“Towards the end of the year, people feel the pressure,” he said. “They want to get this thing off their books. Now is the time to go out and strike up a deal.”
4. Leverage the return of due diligence
“We’re seeing a massive return of due diligence,” Speers said. Instead of waiving inspections like they did during the pandemic frenzy, he said, people are now routinely negotiating repairs or financial concessions, sometimes thousands of dollars in credits, to help make a deal work.
5. Know your submarket’s personality
Just as Philadelphia buyers search across three distinct submarkets, every region is made up of smaller markets, each with its own inventory patterns and pressures. Buyers should understand them as they plan their search.
It’s not a buyer’s market yet, Speers said, but the slowdown gives buyers more room to maneuver than they had in the chaos of the pandemic years.
“2026,” Speers said, “is looking like a year where we’re going to get back.”
