- Home sellers nationwide decreased for the first time in two years, Redfin reported Wednesday.
- July's 1.43 million homebuyers marked a record low, not counting the onset of COVID-19.
- High prices and mortgage rates continue to deter buyers; sellers are fearing prolonged market stays.
SALT LAKE CITY — The number of home sellers is down for the first time in two years.
In the last two months, an estimated 14,000 fewer people across the country were putting their homes up for sale, according to a new analysis posted Wednesday by Redfin, a Seattle-based online brokerage.
The data, based on active listings, shows:
- Total sellers fell to 1.95 million in July, from May's peak.
- It's the first drop since July 2023, when the nation's housing supply hit a near-historic low amid rising mortgage rates.
The decline comes as buyers already are shying away from the housing market:
- July's estimated 1.43 million homebuyers is the lowest level on record, with the exception of when the start of the COVID-19 pandemic halted the market.
- That means there's still 36% more sellers than buyers, the widest margin since tracking began in 2013.
"Homebuyers are spooked by high home prices, high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty, and now sellers are spooked because buyers are spooked," Redfin senior economist Asad Khan said in the post.
"Some sellers are delisting their homes or choosing not to list at all after seeing other houses sit on the market for weeks or months, only to fetch less than the asking price," Khan said, calling it "likely ... the most buyer friendly housing market since the 2008 financial crisis."
Of course, affordability remains an issue for many buyers.
The median home sales price was up slightly year over year in July, Redfin said, rising 1.4% to $434,189. In June, that increase was 1.2% compared to June 2024, and 1.1% more year over year in May.
A separate analysis by Zillow, another online real estate site, found just 17.3% of Salt Lake-area listings in July were affordable to a median-income household, compared to nearly 34% nationwide.
Los Angeles had the nation's lowest share of affordable listings, at just 3%, Zillow said, while median-income buyers would be able to afford more than one-half the homes for sale last month in Buffalo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Cleveland.
The Sun Belt is seeing the most growth in affordable listings, Zillow found, citing Austin, Phoenix and Orlando and crediting builders for having "kept up with demand better in the South, helping inventory grow and price pressure ease."
