Home sellers are giving up at ‘unusually high rate’: Realtor report
Late fall tends to be the time when most homes are taken off the market, as sellers who have been unsuccessful so far don’t want to go through the slowest winter months. However, in October, delistings reported with a one-month delay were up 45.5% from the previous year and nearly 38% from October 2024. realtor.com.
The report calls this an “unusually high rate” because this is the highest delisting year since Realtor.com started tracking in 2022. Delistings began rising in June and remained high for five consecutive months. Approximately 6% of active listings go off the market each month, typically only seen in the middle of winter.
Additionally, more potential buyers are turning to what Realtor.com calls “refuge markets.” These are regions where house prices are much more affordable and there was no increase in prices in the first years of the epidemic.
“Increasing delistings and growth in haven markets reflect the driving force that defines today’s housing market,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement. “These dynamics reflect how high rates and years of rapid price growth have rewritten the rules of interaction for both buyers and sellers.”
Hale predicts a gradual recovery next year, with potentially lower mortgage rates and more consistent supply creating an increasingly balanced market between buyers and sellers.
Some of the cities that have seen the biggest price increases over the past five years are now seeing the largest shares of disappointed sellers. Miami, Denver, and Houston saw the highest proportion of homes delisted compared to newly listed.
The average national list price in November was 0.4% lower than in November 2024, according to Realtor.com. But it was still 36% higher than in November 2019, before the pandemic. New listings were up just 1.7% from a year ago.
Price increases are much stronger in shelter markets like Grand Rapids, Michigan; here there is a 5.5% increase on an annual basis and St. There is a 5% increase in St. Louis. Cleveland, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh round out the top-performing shelter markets, according to the report. Prices in these markets are still 20-30% below the national average.
Another disturbing trend this fall is the cancellation of contracts. According to Redfin, about 15% of home purchase deals were canceled in October; This rate was 14% the previous year. Cancellations are now well above pre-pandemic levels.
Regionally, the most canceled deals were in San Antonio; More than 1 in 5 (21%) of pending home sales fell in October. This was followed by Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 20%, Fort Worth, Texas, with 19.7%, Las Vegas with 19.2%, and Jacksonville, Florida, with 19.2%.
In addition to high housing costs, economic uncertainty was also mentioned in the report.
