Nearly 85,000 sellers took their homes off the market in September, up 28 percent from a year earlier and the highest level for that month in eight years, according to a report from Redfin.
Delistings have been rising since spring 2024, with year-over-year growth peaking at 39 percent in June 2025. They also surged in 2022, when mortgage rates rose from pandemic-era lows and homebuying demand dropped.
One reason more sellers are pulling their homes off the market is that there has been a surge in stale listings. Seventy percent of home listings were “stale” in September, meaning they had been on the market for at least 60 days without going under contract. The typical home that was delisted in September had been on the market for 100 days before the seller pulled it off the market.
Stale listings have been elevated for the last several years because there are half a million more homesellers than buyers in the market, according to Redfin. Many sellers are pulling their homes off the market rather than letting them linger, and/or potentially cutting their price.
Listings are going stale because of slow homebuying demand. Would-be buyers are, Redfin reported, sidelined by high mortgage rates, high home prices, and widespread economic uncertainty; for instance, many Americans reported delaying a major purchase like a home or car due to the government shutdown.
Another factor at play is that sellers don’t want to take a loss, according to Redfin. Roughly 15 percent of the homes that were delisted in September were at risk of selling at a loss, the highest share in five years.
There are some prospective sellers who have decided to become a landlord. Some would-be sellers would rather pull their home off the market and rent it out than sell for less money than they want. Many of them say they would consider listing their home again when the housing market picks up.
Active listings rose 8 percent year-over-year in September to their highest level for that month since 2019. When there are more homes on the market, there are more homes being taken off the market.
Delistings are increasing faster than overall listings are increasing, according to Redfin. Nationwide, 5.5 percent of all home listings were taken off the market in September. That’s the highest September share since at least 2016, and it’s up from 4.8 percent a year earlier.
“That increase is bigger than it looks on paper; it represents a fairly significant jump in delistings from last year,” Redfin Senior Economist Asad Khan said in a release. “More sellers are giving up because their homes have been sitting on the market for a long time, and they don’t want to or can’t afford to settle on accepting a low price.”
The total number of homes for sale was up 8 percent year-over-year in September, pending home sales were down roughly 2 percent, and much of the country is firmly a buyer’s market. That combination would typically lead to lower sale prices — but prices are still rising, up about 2 percent year-over-year.
The increase in delistings helps explain why prices are rising despite tepid homebuying demand.
“The frequency of delistings is keeping inventory tighter than it looks on paper,” Khan said. “Many homes have a sticker price higher than buyers are willing to pay, but many sellers are unwilling to negotiate. When tens of thousands of homeowners pull their homes off the market rather than accept a low offer, it effectively reduces the supply of homes that are actually available for buyers. That keeps sale prices elevated.”
Redfin noted many prospective sellers are deciding against listing altogether, rather than putting their home on the market and then pulling it off. New listings of homes for sale are stagnant, with many would-be sellers taking note of tepid demand and staying put.
Roughly one in five homes that were delisted over the summer were re-listed within three months: 20 percent of homes that were pulled off the market in July were subsequently re-listed, as were 18 percent of homes that were pulled in June.
Delisting is sometimes used as a selling strategy; some sellers take their homes off the market and subsequently re-list at a lower price to avoid house hunters seeing a “price drop” on their listing, and to reset the number of days their home has been on the market. Of the homes that were delisted in July then put back on the market, 31.6 percent of them have sold.
Roughly one-third (34 percent) of September’s delistings were homes owned by sellers who purchased their home two to five years ago, according to Redfin. Another 13 percent of the delistings were from sellers who bought the home zero to two years ago. Put together, nearly half (47 percent) of delistings were from sellers who purchased their home within the last five years.
A smaller share — 37 percent — of total listings were homes owned by someone who had purchased it within the last five years, making that group disproportionately likely to pull their listings off the market, according to Redfin.
There are a few reasons why sellers who have only owned the home for a short period are disproportionately likely to delist.
“Many homeowners who bought during the pandemic demand frenzy still expect sky-high prices. They remember a seller’s market, so they’re hesitant to yield to buyers who want to negotiate the price down and/or ask for concessions,” Khan said. “Recent buyers are also more likely to be testing the market; maybe they would sell and move up to a bigger home in a more desirable neighborhood if they get the price they want, but otherwise they’d stay put. Longtime owners, though, are more motivated to sell — they’re often downsizing or relocating for retirement.”
Additionally, many of the people who bought their home between 2020 and 2022 have an ultra-low mortgage rate, according to Redfin. Some of those people are only willing to give up that low rate if they can get the price they want for their home; otherwise, the math of selling and moving may not work out.