Redfin says pandemic boomtowns, especially on the West Coast, saw significant increases in “de-listings”.

Sellers pulled their homes off the market at a record rate last month, either because they received no offers for the list price or received no offers at all.

That’s according to a report from Redfin, which found that a record 2% of U.S. homes for sale were delisted each week on average during the 12 weeks that ended Nov. 20, compared with 1.6% a year earlier.

That share has since slipped back, dipping to 1.9% during the 12 weeks that ended Nov. 27, which included the Thanksgiving holiday, Redfin said.

Redfin attributes the high number of delistings to a sharp drop in homebuyer demand driven by rising mortgage rates and persistently high home prices. 

Even though mortgage rates have started to cool slightly since mid-November, the monthly mortgage payment on the median-asking-price home is still 40% higher than a year ago.

“Some sellers are having a hard time grasping that we’re not in a housing-market frenzy anymore — it’s tough for them to swallow that they missed the boat on getting a high price,” said Heather Kruayai, a Redfin real estate agent in Jacksonville, Fla. “By the time sellers realize their listing was priced too high, it has already been on the market for too long and is considered stale. I recently had two sellers take their homes off the market after 45-plus days.”

California saw the highest overall share in delistings, as the expensive West Coast market begins to slow. Sacramento not only saw the biggest year-over-year jump in delistings, it also had the highest overall share, with 3.6% of for-sale homes delisted per week on average during the 12 weeks ended Nov. 27.     (December 5, 2022)