Homes in northeast are mostly small (5)
I believe the answer is:
nears
'homes' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with motion as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'northeast are mostly small' is the wordplay.
'northeast' becomes 'NE' (abbreviation).
'mostly' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the word).
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'are' with its final letter removed is 'ar'.
'ne'+'ar'+'s'='NEARS'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nears that I've seen before include "advances" , "Becomes closer" , "Comes closer" , "Saner (anag.)" , "Draws closer to" .)