Houses in Rancho Cucamonga, California, US, Saturday, May 9, 2026
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Frustrated home sellers are giving up, amid the all-important spring market, according to new data.
Nationwide, 5.8% of all homes listed were pulled from the market in April, according to Redfin, a real estate company. That joins December with the largest share of foreclosures since March 2020, when the pandemic hit and the housing market tightened. Listings in April increased by 3.8% compared to March.
The increase comes as higher mortgage rates, higher fuel prices and weak consumer confidence weigh on housing demand. Sellers are no longer in the driver’s seat and are not getting the prices they want.
Atlanta saw the highest number of homes come off the market in April, with 1 in 10 foreclosures. San Jose, California, followed with nearly 9%, then Los Angeles (7.8%), Dallas (7.8%) and Seattle (7.7%).
Mortgage rates have been falling at the beginning of this year, with the 30-year fixed rate briefly touching 5% at the end of February, according to Mortgage News Daily. They then jumped sharply when the war with Iran started and have remained high ever since.
“Buyers know they have bargaining power, they often offer less than the asking price and complete the appraisal, but some sellers won’t budge,” said Patricia Ammann, a Redfin agent, in a statement.
Home prices have been on the decline, but are still higher than last year and have started to stabilize recently.
“Markets that rely heavily on traditional mortgages and price-averse consumers are seeing rates stay low,” Selma Hepp, chief economist at Cotality, said in a statement. “Overall, fewer markets posted year-over-year price declines in April than in previous months, indicating continued stability in the overall housing market.”
Contracts signed on existing homes, called pending sales, rose slightly in April, up 1.4% from March, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s likely due to higher inventory, which was up about 6% from March.
Listings in some parts of the country are starting to pile up, as new ones enter the market and others sit. Homes sit on the market for a long time, causing some buyers to simply give up as the all-important spring season draws to a close.
Some homeowners who took their homes off the market last year are putting them back on the market in April, according to Redfin, hoping to take advantage of the spring market, despite higher mortgage rates. The report found that 2.5% of homes on the market in April were relisted, which combined with the previous two months for the largest share since mid-2020 when there was a sudden increase in housing demand.
