More home sellers are removing their properties from the market, and the trend is happening right during the spring selling season when activity should be at its peak. This shift is revealing important changes about who holds the power in today’s housing market and what economic pressures are affecting both buyers and sellers.
Nationwide, 5.8% of all home listings were pulled off the market in April, according to data from Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN), the real estate brokerage. This figure ties with December for the highest share of homes delisted since March 2020, when the pandemic hit and the housing market essentially froze. Delistings in April increased 3.8% compared with March, showing the trend is accelerating rather than slowing down.
The increase comes as higher mortgage rates, elevated gas prices, and weaker consumer confidence take their toll on housing demand. Sellers are no longer in the driver’s seat and are not getting the prices they want for their homes. Atlanta saw the highest share of homes come off the market in April, with one in 10 properties delisted. San Jose, California, followed with roughly 9% pulled, then Los Angeles at 7.8%, Dallas at 7.8%, and Seattle at 7.7%.
Mortgage rates had been falling at the start of this year, with the 30-year fixed rate briefly touching the 5% range at the end of February, according to Mortgage News Daily. They then jumped sharply when geopolitical tensions with Iran started and have remained elevated since then. The national average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is currently at 6.3%, down 0.39 points year over year but still well above the levels buyers saw earlier this year.
Buyers know they have negotiating power, often offering under the asking price and completing inspections, but some sellers just won’t budge, said Patricia Ammann, a Redfin agent. This standoff is causing many transactions to fall through, with more than 53,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements scrapped in March, representing 13.4% of homes that went under contract.
Home prices have been easing but are still higher than they were a year ago and have even begun to strengthen more recently. Markets that depend more heavily on traditional mortgage financing and rate-sensitive buyers are seeing prices stay relatively flat, said Selma Hepp, chief economist for Cotality. Overall, fewer markets posted year-over-year price declines in April than in prior months, pointing to continued stabilization across the housing market. In April 2026, U.S. home prices were up 2.4% compared to last year, selling for a median price of $396,173.[linkedin]
Signed contracts on existing homes, called pending sales, rose very slightly in April, up 1.4% from March, according to the National Association of Realtors. That increase is likely due to higher inventory, which was up nearly 6% from March. In April 2026, there were 1,482,156 homes for sale in the United States, up 1.6% year over year.
Listings in some parts of the country are starting to pile up as new ones come on the market and other ones sit. Homes are sitting on the market longer, with the median days on the market at 49 days, up 4 days year over year. This causes some buyers to simply give up as the spring season draws to a close.
Some homeowners who pulled their homes off the market over the past year relisted them in April, hoping to take advantage of the spring market despite higher mortgage rates. The report found 2.5% of the homes on the market in April were relistings, tied with the prior two months for the highest share since mid-2020 when there was a sudden surge in housing demand.
The housing market is settling into a more sustainable equilibrium with moderating inventory growth, steady buyer activity, and stable pricing converging across both single-family and condo segments. This balanced environment represents a significant shift from the seller’s market that dominated during the pandemic years, and it requires both buyers and sellers to adjust their expectations about what is possible in current conditions.
