By Kerry Smith
One agent’s take: “Some sellers are having a hard time grasping that we’re not in a housing-market frenzy anymore … that they missed the boat on getting a high price.”
SEATTLE – One out of every 50 housings listed for sales – a record 2% – were delisted each week on average during the 12 weeks ending Nov. 20 compared with 1.6% one year earlier, according to a report from Redfin. The share dropped to 1.9% for the 12 weeks ending Nov. 27, which includes the Thanksgiving holiday.
Sellers pull their listing for a variety of reasons, but many lately do so because they’re not getting the money they thought they would get as prices stagnate. Many sellers also don’t the challenges buyer have faced recently as higher mortgage rates cut into their homebuying dollar. While mortgage rates have dipped slightly since mid-November, the monthly mortgage payment on the median-asking-price home is still 40% higher than it was one year ago.
In some cases, sellers received no offers at the price they wanted, and in some cases no offers at all.
“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,” says Heather Kruayai, a Redfin real estate agent in Jacksonville. “By the time sellers realize their listing is 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.”
Florida metros – weekly delisting average – year-to-year change
- Fort Lauderdale: 1.6%, up 0.2 points year-to-year
- Jacksonville: 1.9% up 0.9 points
- Miami: 1.9%, up 0.1 points
- Orlando: 2.0%, up 0.4 points
- Tampa: 1.9%, up 0.3 points
- West Palm Beach: 1.7%, up 0.3 points
Nationally, only six metros saw a decrease in delistings year-to-year, all less than 1%: Warren, Michigan; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; New Brunswick, New Jersey; Detroit; and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
West Coast tops for unhappy sellers
Sacramento, California, led the U.S. in the year-to-year increase of delisted homes – 3.6% of active listings were delisted per week, on average, during the 12 weeks ending Nov. 27, up 1.6 percentage points from one year earlier. It’s followed by Austin, TX (up 1.5 points), Seattle (up 1.4 points), Phoenix (up 1.3 points) and Denver (up 1.2 points).
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 ending Nov. 27. It was followed by San Francisco (3.4%), Oakland (3.3%), Seattle (3.2%) and San Jose (3%).
Pittsburgh had the lowest share of delistings at 1.3%, followed by Cincinnati at 1.4%,New Brunswick (1.5%), Newark (1.6%) and Virginia Beach (1.6%).
“Usually, sellers who pull their listings off the market in the fall do it with the intention of listing again in the spring,” says David Palmer, a Redfin agent in Seattle. “But with the word ‘recession’ out there, there’s not as much optimism about spring being a better market. Now people are talking about trying again in another year or two once the economy improves.”
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