What is behind housing sentiment?

•Topic modeling uncovers seven housing topics discussed in business media.•Sentiments of topics differ in their relation to house price changes.•Sentiments of economic outlook and house construction predict future house prices. We utilize topic modeling to analyze the relation between housing media sentiment and house price changes in the United States. We uncover seven distinct topics related to housing market in articles published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today during the 2000–2021 period. Not all topics show significant relation to house price movements. Sentiments of articles related to economic outlook and house construction are most significant in explaining future house price changes suggesting that news media discussions about economic fundamentals stand behind the link between news media sentiment and house price changes.