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Sellers in a handful of U.S. cities have lost their edge. House Buyers of America's new index shows exactly where
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Homeowners planning to sell this year are running into a market that behaves nothing like it did three years ago. Active listings are piling up in many parts of the country, price cuts have become routine rather than exceptional, and homes that once fielded multiple offers within days are sitting for weeks or months before a buyer commits. That shift matters because a seller's plans, timing a move for a new job, downsizing after the kids leave, closing an estate, often assume the market will cooperate on a reasonable schedule. When it doesn't, sellers face a choice between waiting longer than planned or accepting less than they expected.
Several forces are driving that shift at once. Mortgage rates well above the ultra-low levels of a few years ago have kept many owners from selling and buying again, since giving up a 3 percent loan for something closer to 6 percent erases much of the financial logic of moving. At the same time, new construction has continued in many cities even as resale demand cooled, adding supply just as fewer buyers are qualified or willing to pay current prices. Job losses in specific industries have compounded the effect in some regions, thinning out the pool of local buyers who would otherwise absorb that supply. The result is a housing market that looks nothing like a single national story, with conditions ranging from still-competitive to sharply tilted toward buyers depending on the city.
