Home Sellers Are Taking Listings off the Market in Record Numbers as Buyer Demand Fizzles
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As the housing market continues to cool and the pool of potential buyers shrinks, more sellers are yanking their homes off the market.
During the three months ending on November 20, an average of 2% of the homes for sale in the United States were delisted each week — a record high. That’s according to a new analysis from the real estate brokerage Redfin, which crunched data from 43 of the 50 largest cities in the US.
During the same period a year ago, about 1.6% of homes were delisted on average each week, according to Redfin’s data. A delisted home is one that is removed from the market before it is sold.
Redfin’s experts attribute the spike in delistings to a sharp drop in demand. With mortgage rates more than double what they were at the start of the year and housing prices still high, potential buyers are increasingly unable to afford a home purchase.
“Some sellers are having a hard time grasping that we’re not in a housing-market frenzy anymore — it’s tough for them to swallow that they missed the boat on getting a high price,” Jacksonville, Florida, Redfin agent Heather Kruayai said in a news release.
Where home prices are going next
Normally, sellers having trouble finding bids will lower the asking price — and sure enough, we've seen a rise in house price cuts in recent months. But with many buyers and sellers now sitting on the sidelines to wait for more favorable conditions, prices could stay elevated for a while.
Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale predicts that home prices will rise by 5.4% next year. That would be much slower growth than we’ve seen over the past two years, but it’s growth nonetheless.
“Prices might not continue to plunge down as much as some projections anticipate … as the available inventory of homes on the market is constrained,” Zillow Senior Economist Nicole Bachaud said in email commentary shared with Money earlier this week.
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