For the third time in less than a week, a new report indicates that housing inventory is slowing — and moving in the opposite direction from what most real estate agents and homebuyers wanted.
The reportRedfin’s report shows that active listings fell 1.4 percent in November compared to October. The report describes this as “the largest decline since June 2023, seasonally adjusted.” The report also shows that new listings fell 2.2 percent month-on-month, reaching “the lowest level since April 2024 on a seasonally adjusted basis.”
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The conclusion is that home sellers are ‘withdrawing’. And the report says the retreat is a response to homebuyer behavior.
“Home sellers are retreating in part because buyers are retreating,” the report notes. “Buyers are skittish due to high mortgage rates and economic turmoil, meaning many sellers are not getting the list price they had hoped for. As a result, some are choosing to delist their homes or not list them at all.”
Additionally, the report indicates that “the typical home sold last month cost 1.6 percent less than the final list price – the highest November discount in six years.”
“Sellers need to price their homes very reasonably to generate interest,” Carlos Castillo, an agent with Redfin Premier in Los Angeles, said in the report.
Redfin’s report goes on to say that pending sales fell 2.5 percent month-over-month in November, which was the biggest decline since December 2024, and existing home sales were flat.
The report is the latest in a genre that highlights the housing market at a particularly sluggish time. Other examples include a report from Zillow last week that pointed to continued “seasonal cooling,” and another report from the National Association of Realtors showing that “inventory growth is beginning to slow.”
Seasonality late in the year is not unusual, and November and December are typically slower months for real estate professionals. But the current sluggishness comes after years of high rates and slow sales, and clashes head-on with agents’ hopes that some sort of rally could take place by year’s end.
Instead, Redfin’s report indicates that “while mortgage rates have fallen in recent months, they remain much higher than in 2020 and 2021, and Redfin agents say many house hunters are waiting to jump into the market until rates fall further.”
There are silver linings in some cases, including that buyers have influence on the market, but ultimately the report paints a bleak picture.
“Redfin economists expect existing home sales to end the year about level with 2024,” the report states, “which was the worst sales year since 1995.”
Email Jim Dalrymple II
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