The Signal – February 20, 2026

The Fed’s January meeting minutes revealed something the headline didn’t mention — and it should change how you’re managing your pipeline heading into spring. Some members raised the possibility of rate hikes. Two voting members wanted to cut. The committee called its own forward path “genuinely uncertain.” That’s not the clean, patient hold the market assumed. Meanwhile a federal judge let Zillow keep its private listing ban in place while the Compass antitrust lawsuit plays out. What looks like a legal update is actually a window into the biggest structural battle in real estate right now — a fight over who controls the consumer relationship. And agents are the channel both sides are trying to route around.

Then there’s the number that should be getting more attention than it is. The NAR Housing Affordability Index just hit its best reading since March 2022. Wages are outpacing home price growth. The math for buying works for more people than the behavior suggests. And pending sales are still soft. That gap is the real story heading into spring. This week: what the Fed minutes actually say, what the Compass/Zillow ruling means for your listing strategy today, and why the spring opportunity isn’t waiting on a rate cut.

I pull this data every week as VP of Growth at ENRG Realty. Sharing it because if I’m doing the work anyway, might as well bring you along. Questions or want to talk through any of this — reach out directly. 

*** Everything I cover on The Signal comes from real industry sources: trade publications, financial reports, housing data, Fed commentary. I’m not pulling takes from Twitter or recycling Instagram carousels. I go to the source material every week and share how I’m reading it. But here’s the honest part: the facts I’m working with are only as credible as the publications reporting them. I synthesize, I analyze, I give you my read. That’s the value. This isn’t financial advice and it’s not gospel. It’s one person doing the work and sharing what he’s finding