Home sellers pull listings at near-record pace as buyers negotiate harder

US Sellers Pull Homes Off Market At Near-Record Pace As Buyers Balk At High Prices With March home prices across the US sliding sequentially almost 0.2%, and rising just 0.83% YoY, the weakest annual appreciation since July 2023... ...  the balance in the real estate market is rapidly shifting away from a sellers' market. And sellers are not happy. A near record 5.8% of all US home listings were pulled off the market in April, according to Redfin. That’s tied with December 2025 for the highest share since March 2020, when the onset of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt and spooked sellers. April delistings surged 3.8% month-over-month, the second straight month in which they have increased. Prior to 2020, delistings were never as common as they are now.   Delistings are on the rise largely because it’s a buyer’s market. Many homeowners want to sell - but only if they can get the price they want.  In many cases, prospective sellers test the waters but pull their home off the market when they don’t get the price or terms that make selling worth it.  And with most homeowners in possession of sufficient liquidity buffers to avoid the need for liquidation, expect many more delistings as expectations for rapidly rising home prices crash and burn.  “Sellers are still getting used to the post-pandemic normal,” said Patricia Ammann, a Redfin Premier agent in Arlington, VA. “Prices aren’t soaring like they were five years ago–high gas prices and the rising cost of living overall is trickling down to the housing market, making buyers much less likely to bid prices up. Buyers know they have negotiating power, often offering under the asking price and completing inspections, but some sellers just won’t budge.” The growing flood of AirBnB properties being dumped into a bidless market aside, Ammann noted that the most desirable properties still elicit multiple offers and sell above asking price with no contingencies.  According to Redfin, there are a few forces driving the trend: Homes are taking longer to sell. Mortgage rates came down from their recent peak in April, but they were still double pandemic-era lows–and home prices are still rising. Affordability is strained, which has pushed many house hunters to the sidelines. With fewer buyers competing for homes, sellers are more likely to wait weeks or months without a strong offer. Inventory is rising faster than demand. In many parts of the country, listings have piled up as more homeowners try to sell as buyer activity slows. That increased competition among sellers means some homes sit unsold, prompting owners to pull them off the market rather than cut their price. Some sellers still have pandemic-era price expectations. Homeowners who watched prices soar during 2020-2022 may still expect bidding wars or top-dollar offers. But today’s buyers are more price-sensitive because monthly housing costs are much higher. When sellers don’t receive the offers they anticipated, some choose to delist and wait for conditions to improve. Economic uncertainty is making both buyers and sellers cautious. Concerns about the Iran war, inflation, tariffs and job security are causing some homeowners to hesitate about moving unless they can get a strong price. Delisting can be a strategic reset. Sellers sometimes remove a stale listing to relaunch it later with a new price, new photos or during a more active season. Others are deciding to rent their homes instead, especially if they have a low mortgage rate they don’t want to give up. Meanwhile, as the first wave of sellers is delisting, another wave of more motivated sellers - those who delisted their homes previously - are now re-listing them: 2.5% of homes that were on the market in April belonged to sellers who had pulled their listing in the previous 12 months, then relisted. That’s tied with the prior two months for the highest share since mid-2020, when many homeowners were putting their homes back on the market after delisting at the start of the pandemic Homeowners who pulled their home off the market over the last year are increasingly trying again as they come to terms with today’s buyer’s market. As high mortgage rates and growing inventory continue giving buyers negotiating power, sellers are aligning with the realities of the market.  They were also betting on a stronger spring market, hoping for a bump in homebuying demand after a slow few years that were marked by sky-high mortgage rates. The market did improve in April as rates dipped a bit, though it slowed down again in May as rates jumped.  “Many of last year’s sellers delisted when they couldn’t get the price they wanted. Now, some of them are circling back, willing to price realistically and do what it takes to sell their home,” said Monica DiSchiano, a Redfin Premier agent in Austin, TX. “They’ve realized that if they’re selling for less, the next home they buy will cost less, too.” Delistings Most Common in Atlanta and San Jose  In Atlanta, one in 10 (10.7%) homes listed in April were pulled off the market–the highest share among the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Next come San Jose, CA (9.3%), Los Angeles (7.8%), Dallas (7.8%) and Seattle (7.7%). Buyers hold the negotiating power in all those metros, meaning they often try to negotiate prices down or get concessions, which can lead sellers to pull their homes off the market instead of hitting lowball bids. Delistings were least common in Pittsburgh, where 3.5% of April’s listings were pulled off the market. Next came Columbus, OH (3.6%), Chicago (3.6%), Cincinnati (3.7%) and New Brunswick, NJ (4.4%). Chicago and New Brunswick are two of just a few metros in the U.S. that are not buyer’s markets.  Bay Area Homeowners Are Relisting at High Rate In San Francisco, 4.2% of the homes that were on the market in April were relistings of homes that had been delisted in the prior 12 months. That’s the highest share of the metros analyzed by Redfin. It’s followed by neighboring San Jose, where 4.1% of all listings were relistings. Next came Boston (3.8%), Oakland, CA (3.7%) and Riverside, CA (3.7%).  Relistings are most prevalent in the Bay Area because the local market is hot, fueled largely by the AI boom. Many homeowners are taking advantage of rising demand by putting their houses back on the market.  Relistings were least common in Pittsburgh (1.6%), also the metro area where delistings were least common. It’s followed by Virginia Beach, VA (1.7%), Cincinnati (2%), Montgomery County, PA (2%) and New Brunswick, NJ (2.1%).  The list of the 20 US metro areas with the highest delisting rates is shown below. Source: Redfin Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 13:00

As the scales tip in favor of home buyers, more sellers are finding themselves unhappy with their prospects – and yanking their homes off the market. In April, 5.8% of all home listings in the U.S. were taken off the market according to a new analysis from Redfin. That rate matches the record high number of delistings in March 2020, when uncertainty about the pandemic shuttered businesses and slowed real estate deals to a crawl. Delisting rates were also this high in December of last year, a trend that points to a shifting market in which buyers now wield more power than sellers. With pickier buyers making more demands, sellers are less likely to lock in their dream deal, sometimes pulling their homes off the market in the process. Delistings were up for the second month in a row in April, up 3.8% from the month prior. Homeowners generally delist when they aren’t able to land the price they wanted and sometimes they decide against selling altogether. In other instances they might relist, putting a previously delisted home back up for sale after at least a month off the market. In April, 2.5% of homes on the market were relistings, matching the mid-2020 highs when many homes came back online after being pulled from the market in the pandemic’s early months. “Sellers are still getting used to the post-pandemic normal,” Arlington, Virginia Redfin Agent Patricia Ammann said in the report. “Prices aren’t soaring like they were five years ago–high gas prices and the rising cost of living overall is trickling down to the housing market, making buyers much less likely to bid prices up. Buyers know they have negotiating power, often offering under the asking price and completing inspections, but some sellers just won’t budge.” Delisting on the rise Home sellers might not always get their way in today’s market, but buyers often can. Mortgage rates remain high but housing inventory is growing, giving buyers more options and freeing up a tight market. Buyers are still grappling with high mortgage rates, but the number of homes for sale in 2026 is up, bolstering buyers with more options to choose from and more bargaining power. Like with all housing trends, local data tells a deeper story. Delistings are most common in Atlanta and San Jose in April, with 10.7% and 9.3% of homes pulled from the market, respectively. The opposite is true in Pittsburgh, where only 3.5% of listings were removed from the market in April, followed by Columbus, Chicago, and Cincinnati.  When it comes to relistings, San Francisco leads the pack. In April, 4.2% of homes listed there were relistings, followed by nearby San Jose with 4.1%. With interest in the Bay Area again on the rise, buyers are putting previously delisted homes back online to see what happens.  The Bay Area housing market heated back up this year, with the median sale price of a home in San Francisco up 14.4% this year compared to 2025. The jump reverses pandemic era lows, when many Bay Area residents and some tech businesses decamped for other parts of the country, like Austin, Texas, where home prices have cooled off and housing supply now isn’t as crunched compared to other corners of the country.