Delistings were up almost 50% in May as home sellers pulled their properties off the market, indicating they would rather “wait than negotiate,” a report released on Tuesday found.
The housing market appears to be shifting in a “buyer-friendly direction,” according to a new report from Realtor.com
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Delistings were up almost 50% in May as home sellers pulled their properties off the market, indicating they would rather “wait than negotiate,” a report released on Tuesday found.
According to the Realtor.com June Housing Market Trends Report, delistings were up by 35% year-to-date and 47% year-over-year in May, outpacing active listing growth of 28.4% year to date and 31.5% year over year. The study said this indicates “recent buyer-friendly momentum could wane.”
Some sellers are slashing property prices to make sales: Prices for more than 1 in 5 listings were reduced in June. The report added that the price cuts for more than 20% of listings were the “highest share for any June since at least 2016.” The western and southern areas of the U.S. saw more price cuts in June than the rest of the country, according to the report.
“The housing market offered buyers more options, as inventory continued to climb for the 20th straight month and new listings increased year over year across every major region,” the study said. Available inventory of homes for sales in June rose 28.9% year over year, hitting a post-pandemic high with over one million active listings, according to the report.
However, listing momentum is slowing, as new listings have declined since April’s peak. Still, they're up 6.2% compared to June 2024. The western and southern parts of the U.S. experienced the most new inventory growth in June, while the Northeast saw the least amount of growth, the report found.
The housing report said that, nationally, “homes are taking five days longer to sell than a year ago,” with available homes spending a median of 53 days on the market.
“With growing inventory and homes taking longer to sell, the U.S. housing market is undoubtedly shifting in a buyer-friendly direction,” the report said. “While the market certainly feels cooler to sellers, context is also important: The U.S. is coming off a very strong and sustained seller’s market, with historically low inventory and extremely quick sale times from 2020 through Spring 2022.”
The study said sellers might be in “unfamiliar territory" where “pricing power is not a given.”
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