Where Have All the Home Sellers Gone?

Tight supply and a rampant affordability crisis over the last several years have created a series of hurdles for prospective buyers, but at the start of the spring homebuying season, sellers are also responding to less-than-favorable market conditions. Just 349,284 U.S. homes were listed for sale in March 2023, well below the 437,270 listed in March 2022, Fortune reports.

Current homeowners are holding off on listing their homes to hold onto a 2% or 3% mortgage rate, but fewer sellers means fewer homes on the market, and that waning inventory can also lead to fewer buyers engaging in home purchases.

That said, this pullback in new listings isn’t just felt on the supply side, it’s also delivering a hit to the demand side. If a particular homeowner decides to hold off on trading up properties, it means there is one fewer home going on the market and one fewer buyer hitting the market.

What is active listings/inventory telling us right now? The fact that active listings/inventory continued to decline through March suggests that sellers are once again gaining power over buyers—at least relative to the second half of 2022, when inventory was on a somewhat speedy uptick.

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