Saturday, May 9, 2026 at a residence in Rancho Cucamonga, California, USA.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
More dissatisfied home sellers are giving up in the midst of the all-important spring market, new data shows.
According to real estate brokerage Redfin, 5.8% of residential properties nationwide were taken off the market in April. This is on par with December, which had the highest percentage of homes delisted since March 2020, when the pandemic hit and the housing market froze. The number of delistings in April increased by 3.8% compared to March.
The increase comes as rising mortgage rates, soaring gas prices and weak consumer confidence are hurting demand for housing. The seller is no longer in the driver’s seat and can’t get the price they want.
Atlanta had the most homes removed from the market in April, with 1 in 10 delisted. San Jose, California, followed with about 9%, followed by Los Angeles (7.8%), Dallas (7.8%), and Seattle (7.7%).
According to Mortgage News Daily, mortgage interest rates have been falling since the beginning of this year, with 30-year fixed interest rates briefly reaching the 5% range at the end of February. Then, when the war with Iran started, it rose sharply and has continued to rise ever since.
“Buyers know they have bargaining power and often offer below asking price and complete inspections, but some sellers simply don’t budge,” Redfin agent Patricia Ammann said in a release.
Although house prices are easing, they are still higher than they were a year ago and have recently started to rise further.
“Prices have remained relatively flat in markets that rely heavily on traditional mortgage financing and interest rate-sensitive buyers,” Kotality chief economist Thelma Hepp said in a release. “Overall, fewer markets recorded year-on-year price declines in April compared to the previous month, indicating that the overall housing market continues to stabilize.”
According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of existing home sales, or the number of pending sales, increased very slightly in April, up 1.4% from March. This appears to be because inventory has increased by nearly 6% since March.
In some parts of the country, properties are starting to pile up as new properties come onto the market while others are left unused. With homes sitting on the market for so long, some buyers simply give up as the all-important spring season draws to a close.
Some homeowners who took their homes off the market over the past year relisted in April in hopes of taking advantage of the spring market despite rising mortgage rates, according to Redfin. According to the report, 2.5% of homes that went on the market in April were relisted, the highest share in the past two months since mid-2020 when demand for housing skyrocketed.
