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SALT LAKE CITY – The spring homebuying season is well underway, but the housing market is challenging. The number of new homes listed for sale nationwide fell 1.3% last week, according to real estate company Redfin, and some sellers are pulling their homes off the market. In April, a Redfin study found, nearly 6% of U.S. home listings were delisted. Utah is not immune from this. “It's definitely happening,” said Dejan Eskic, who studies the housing market at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah. Eskic told KSL several hundred fewer homes in Utah were listed for sale in May compared to the same time last year. “It's a downward trend,” he said. Meanwhile, home prices are high. The statewide median price for all housing types was $528,000 in May. Mortgage rates are also elevated, sitting at 6.68% for a 30-year fixed as of Tuesday afternoon, per Mortgage News Daily. Eskic described the market as “kind of stuck.” “Those that can afford are buying, and sellers don't have to sell. Sellers choose to sell,” he said. “The market's really iced out those who can't really afford.”Unlike the financial crisis of 2008, Eskic said hardly anyone in Utah owes more money than what their home is worth, and many sellers have more breathing room. “They have expectation on price, and if it's not being met, they'll just stay put,” Eskic said. “The move is not worth the cost.” It takes about 34 days, on average, to sell a home in Utah right now, said Eskic. Hanging over all this is uncertainty about the economy which, according to Redfin, is a factor in fewer home listings. “Consumer confidence dropped to an all-time low last week, due partly to rising food and gas prices,” the real estate company said. “The ongoing Iran war and inflation fears are exacerbating financial jitters. Many Americans aren’t able to, or don’t want to, buy a home when the cost of everything else is rising.” The war in Iran has specifically sent mortgage rates climbing, according to CNBC, which impacts buyers’ monthly housing costs. As the spring homebuying season continues, Eskic said buyers in Utah still have a lot to choose from, but sellers get to be picky. “If they're not happy with the offer they're getting,” he said, “they don't have to take it.”
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