More homes are being taken off the market due to a lack of buyers

Typically, you’d think more homes being taken off the market is good news for real estate agents and analysts… But, with a surplus of new homes for sale and a shortage of buyers, US properties are increasingly being delisted to be moved on from, rather than moved into.

Data from analytics firm CoreLogic, reported by the WSJ last Thursday, showed a significant jump in housing delistings at the end of last year, with almost 73,000 homes being taken off the market in December — a 64% increase year-on-year, the highest level in almost a decade — after failing to find a buyer. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) also found that pending home sales retracted by 5.5% that month, after four successive months of growth.

Though this follows the trend that more houses tend to be pulled during winter months — fewer people generally go house-hunting as the year comes to a close, with sellers often relisting in the spring — the uptick is further proof that the US housing market is struggling, even with more properties becoming available.

Bye-the-buy

There’s been much chatter about a Great American housing shortage over the past decade. A post-pandemic house building slump, combined with more people staying put to keep their cheap mortgages, has kept US house prices at record highs despite rising interest rates.

However, per the WSJ, data from the National Association of Home Builders showed that the number of completed new homes grew 46% year-over-year to 118K in December, and the NAR also found that the number of homes for sale that same month was at 1.15 million (+16%).

So, if more homes are available… Why are sales still hovering near 30-year lows? Well, the demand part of the housing supply and demand equation is still being weighed down by two factors: affordability and security. Indeed, CoreLogic recently reported that home prices increased nationally by 3.4% in Dec ‘24, while 30-year fixed mortgage rates have inched back up towards 7%.