The all-important spring housing market is underway, and while the pace is not expected to be strong, there are signs of optimism, at least among sellers. Some who gave up last year are doing it again.
Nearly 45,000 homes that were delisted last year were put back on the market in January, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage. That's the highest January figure since Redfin began tracking this metric a decade ago and represents a record 3.6% of homes that were on the market in January.
The January numbers come as Redfin reported a record number of sellers taking their homes off the market last September. Nearly 85,000 sellers delisted, up 28% from September 2024. Higher mortgage rates last year, still-high home prices and growing uncertainty in the economy sidelined buyers last fall, taking sellers out of the driver's seat, where they had been in the years during and just after the pandemic.
Ashley Rummage, a real estate agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, responding to CNBC's Fourth Quarter Real Estate Market Survey, said in December that more sellers were being asked for concessions and some simply refused.
“A lot of sellers that I've met and worked with have just thrown up their hands and said, 'If we can't get what we want for our house right now, or what we think it's worth, then we're going to go ahead and take it to the market and try again, maybe in the spring,'” Rummage said.
The overall inventory of homes for sale nationwide is higher than a year ago, but gains are stagnating, according to Realtor.com. Active listings rose 7.9% in February, year over year, but that figure has been declining for nine consecutive months. Listings are still 17% below 2019, before the pandemic.
“Inventory has improved for more than two years, but momentum has faltered in recent months,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Supply increases have been concentrated in the South and West and have skewed toward homes priced under $500,000. While the Northeast and Midwest have seen growth, they remain significantly undersupplied.”
With rates now hovering around four-year lows, Hale said, a key question is whether this “thaw” spurs more buyers or more sellers. Mortgage rates have risen slightly in recent days, due to the ongoing war with Iran and renewed fears about inflation.
