The retreat is on … and it's on both sides of the table!
Sellers are withdrawing from the market, largely because buyers are pulling back, too, according to a new report from Redfin.
Active listings dropped 1.4% month-over-month in November, the largest drop off since June 2023, while new listings fell 2.2% to their lowest level since April 2024.
Buyers, meanwhile, normally pull back during the holiday season. But high mortgage rates and economic concerns this season are making them even more skittish.
Overall, existing-home sales in November dropped to an adjusted annual rate of 4.27 million. And Redfin economists expect existing-home sales to end the year roughly flat as well.
Sellers are not getting the prices they hoped for, Redfin said. And as a result, they are either taking their houses off the market or not listing at all. Consequently, just a 3.8 months’ supply of homes are on the market, and that’s at the current slow sales pace.
The typical median home that sold in November 2025 went for 1.6% less than its final list price — the steepest November discount in six years, according to the report. The median sold-for price rose by 0.7% year-over-year to $433,222. But aside from last May, it was the smallest increase since June 2023.
At the same time, the typical house that went under contract last month spent 53 days on the market. That’s seven days longer than a year earlier and the slowest November since 2016.
“The challenge is that most sellers are also buyers, and homes are expensive, so they often need to get a certain amount for their house to afford the next one,” said Carlos Castillo, a Redfin agent in Los Angeles.
Castillo recently had a client lower his price because he wasn’t getting any interest. That step “drummed up” four offers and the place sold for more than the original asking price.
For the most part, though, buyers have backed off faster over the past couple of years as they wait until loan costs fall further before jumping into the market, Redfin agents report.
In another sign of a slowing market, pending home sales declined 2.5% month-over-month in November, which was the slowest November in nearly a decade.
Still, there is some hope. Some sellers 一 roughly one in four 一 are obtaining more than they were asking for, and the ratio of final sales price to the listing price came in at more than 98%.
