Redfin Finds More Than 3 in 5 Home Listings Now ‘Stale’

(Illustration courtesy of Redfin)

More than three in five homes that were on the market in May had been listed for at least 30 days without going under contract, according to Redfin.

That figure is up from 60% one year earlier and roughly 50% two years earlier.

The share of homes sitting on the market for at least one month has tended to increase year over year since March, when growth in new listings accelerated but demand from buyers remained tepid, as it has been since mortgage rates started rising in 2022. “More homes for sale paired with slow demand means that less-desirable listings are piling up, leaving some of them without a buyer,” the report noted.

Redfin said stubbornly high mortgage rates and record-high home prices have priced out many potential homebuyers, tempering demand even at a time of year when the housing market is typically warming up. “The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.99%, more than double the pandemic-era low and just slightly below October 2023’s two-decade high of 7.8%,” the report said. “The median U.S. monthly housing payment is just about $30 shy of its record high.”

The report said two in five homes that were on the market in May had been listed for at least two months without going under contract. That’s up from 27% two years earlier.

“The share of homes sitting on the market for at least 60 days was essentially flat year over year in both April and May,” the report said. “Before that, the metric had posted annual declines since last September. The share of homes sitting for at least 60 days is likely to start increasing next month so long as mortgage rates stay high.”