A “For Sale” sign in front of a home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC, United States, Tuesday, August 12, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The all-important spring real estate market is underway, and while the pace isn’t expected to be strong, there are signs of optimism, at least among sellers. Some who gave up last year are getting back on track.
Nearly 45,000 homes delisted last year were relisted for sale in January, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage. This is the highest January figure since Redfin began tracking this metric a decade ago and represents a record 3.6% of homes put on the market in January.
The January numbers come as Redfin reported a record number of sellers taking their homes off the market last September. Nearly 85,000 sellers were delisted, up 28% from September 2024. Rising mortgage rates last year, still-high home prices and growing economic uncertainty marginalized buyers last fall, pushing sellers out of the driver’s seat, where they were in the years during and just after the pandemic.
Ashley Rummage, a real estate agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, in response to CNBC’s fourth-quarter housing market survey, said in December that more sellers were being asked for concessions, and some were simply refusing.
“A lot of sellers I’ve met and worked with have just thrown their hands in the air and said, ‘If we can’t get what we want for our house right now, or what we think it’s worth, then we’re going to take it to the market and try again, maybe in the spring,'” Rummage said.
The overall inventory of homes for sale nationwide is higher than a year ago, but gains are plateauing, according to Realtor.com. Active listings increased 7.9% in February, year over year, but that number has been declining for nine consecutive months. Registrations are still down 17% compared to 2019, before the pandemic.
“Inventory has been improving for more than two years, but momentum has slowed in recent months,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Supply gains have been concentrated in the South and West and biased toward homes priced under $500,000. Although the Northeast and Midwest have seen growth, they remain significantly undersupplied.”
With rates now near four-year lows, Hale said, a key question is whether this “thaw” spurs more buyers or more sellers. Mortgage rates have risen slightly in recent days, driven by the ongoing war with Iran and renewed fears about inflation.