Sellers canceled 5.8% of all U.S. residential listings in April, the highest share since March 2020, as buyers held firm on prices and asking prices posted their steepest annual decline since 2017.
Sellers took 5.8% of all U.S. residential properties off the market in April, the highest share since March 2020, when real estate was frozen due to the pandemic.
The surge comes as asking prices have recorded their steepest annual decline since 2017, and more homeowners are being forced to wait instead of making concessions on price as buyers gain more influence and the gap between sellers’ expectations and market reality widens, according to new data from Redfin and Realtor.com.
The surge in delistings is happening as asking prices fall and buyers gain more leverage. Median list prices fell 2.4% in May from the same month last year, according to another monthly housing report released Tuesday, the steepest annual decline since 2017, according to Realtor.com data. Prices per square foot fell 2.5%, falling in 35 of the top 50 metro areas.
Redfin attributed the delisting trend to a widening gap between seller expectations and buyer behavior. Homes are taking longer to sell, mortgage rates remain roughly double their pandemic-era lows, and inventory is growing faster than demand in many markets, increasing competition among sellers and giving buyers more room to negotiate.
“Sellers are still getting used to post-pandemic life,” said Patricia Ammann, a Redfin Premier agent in Arlington, Virginia. “Buyers know they have bargaining power and will often offer less than the asking price and get the inspection completed. But some sellers just don’t budge.”
Atlanta had the highest delisting rate among the 50 major U.S. cities, with 10.7% of listed properties taken off the market in April. San Jose, California (9.3%), Los Angeles (7.8%), Dallas (7.8%) and Seattle (7.7%) followed. Pittsburgh had the lowest rate at 3.5%.
Despite the surge in delistings, some sellers are coming back. Relistings (homes that returned to the market after being removed for at least 31 days in the past 12 months) accounted for 2.5% of active listings in April, the highest share since mid-2020. San Francisco led all major cities at 4.2%, followed by San Jose at 4.1%, a trend Redfin attributes to demand fueled by the AI boom.
The overall market showed signs of resilience despite the pressure. According to Realtor.com, the number of pending listings increased 4.3% in May compared to the same month last year, marking the sixth consecutive month of increases. The number of new listings increased by 2.1% year-on-year, marking the highest level for May since 2022.
The proportion of properties with reduced prices decreased by 1.6 percentage points compared to the previous year. Realtor.com noted that this shows sellers are pricing based on current conditions rather than testing the upper end of the market.
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