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Homes for sale were pulled from the market at record pace in November as buyers and sellers retreated in force, according to new data released Friday by Redfin.
An average of 2 percent of homes for sale across the United States were pulled from the market in the 12-week period ending Nov. 20, compared to 1.6 percent during the same period a year earlier, according to the data. The surge in delistings marked the biggest decline in active listings since at least 2015, according to Redfin.
Sellers are pulling their houses off the market because they’re not receiving the offers they want — or any offers at all — as high mortgage rates put the squeeze on most homebuyers’ budgets.
“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,” Heather Kruayai, a Redfin real estate agent in Jacksonville, said in a statement. “By the time sellers realize their listing was priced too high, it has already been on the market for too long and is considered stale. I recently had two sellers take their homes off the market after 45-plus days.”
The biggest jump in delistings has been observed in some of the pandemic boomtowns that saw the most frenzied housing markets just months ago. Sacramento saw 3.6 percent of active listings delisted during the 12 week period ending Nov. 27, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, Austin followed with the biggest jump at 1.5 percent, and Seattle logged a 1.4 percent increase in delistings.
Redfin
“I’ve had many sellers cancel listings,” David Palmer, a Redfin real estate agent in Seattle said in a statement. “Usually, sellers who pull their listings off the market in the fall do it with the intention of listing again in the spring. But with the word ‘recession’ out there, there’s not as much optimism about spring being a better market. Now people are talking about trying again in another year or two once the economy improves.”
The markets with the biggest share of delistings tended to be expensive West Coast markets, the report found, with Sacramento logging not only the biggest increase but the highest share at 3.6 percent for the 12 week period ending Nov. 27. Sacramento was followed by San Francisco where 3.4 percent of listings were delisted during the same period, and Oakland at 3.3 percent.
