The Housing Market Game with Redfin’s Daryl Fairweather

36 snips

Jun 4, 2025

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin and author of "Hate the Game," shares insights on the housing market and game theory. She discusses how Beyoncé illustrates game theory principles. Young buyers will benefit from her tips on entering the market. Fairweather warns that disappointment may characterize the 2025 housing landscape, while rents are likely to rise in 2026. She analyzes current distress among homeowners and emphasizes the importance of Redfin’s Buyer Demand Index for predicting home sales trends and market downturn signals.

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INSIGHT

Consumers Cut Luxury Spending

Consumer behavior shows scaling back on luxury home purchases and discretionary spending.
There is a $40,000 gap between list and sale price mainly due to expensive homes not selling.

INSIGHT

Consumer Stress and Housing Impact

If consumers face rising costs and miss rent/mortgage payments, evictions and fewer investor buyers may drive down home values.
Strong equity cushions homeowners but wider distress could pressure the Fed to cut rates if inflation permits.

INSIGHT

Fed Cuts Risk Amid Crisis

There's a large tail risk of Fed rate cuts triggered by financial crisis from devalued dollar and investors pulling money out.
Rate cuts may happen suddenly if unemployment rises or a crisis unfolds.

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In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Dr. Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist for Redfin, to discuss the life and economic lessons in her new book, Hate the Game, and also dive into the latest data in the US housing market with Redfin’s unique point of view.

About Daryl Fairweather

Dr. Daryl Fairweather is the chief economist at Redfin and the author of the new book Hate the Game. At Redfin, she analyzes US housing markets and consumer behavior. She is a member of the advisory council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and was a former senior economist at Amazon. She is a regular contributor to Forbes, and she has been featured in 60 Minutes, Today, The New York Times, and Bloomberg, among other outlets. She has a degree from MIT and a PhD from the University of Chicago.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

What Beyoncé teaches us about game theory.
What young buyers should know about buying a home
Why the 2025 housing market theme is “disappointment”
Why she thinks rents will start growing more expensive in 2026.
Which homeowners and housing markets are facing the most distress now
What Redfin’s “Buyer Demand Index” tells us about home sales for the rest of the summer
Which signals to watch for a coming downturn
What to know about millennial home buyers
What happens to the housing market after 2030

Related to this episode:

Featuring Mike Simonsen, President of Altos

A true data geek, Mike founded Altos in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. The company now serves the largest Wall Street investment firms, banks, and tens of thousands of real estate professionals around the country. Mike's insights on the market have been featured in Forbes, New York Times, Bloomberg, Dallas Morning News, Seattle PI, and many other national media outlets.

About Altos

Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country - all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing - and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.

⁠⁠⁠Schedule a demo⁠⁠⁠ to see Altos in action. You can also get a copy of our free eBook: ⁠⁠⁠How To Use Market Data to Build Your Real Estate Business⁠⁠⁠.

The Top of Mind podcast features top real estate industry insiders and experts to unpack the most important housing, real estate, mortgage data and trends that are shaping the housing market. Hosted by Altos founder Mike Simonsen and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.