Home sellers are relisting properties at the fastest pace in a decade

The all-important spring housing market is getting underway, and although the pace is not expected to be strong, there are signs of optimism, at least among sellers. Some who gave up last year are coming back again.

Nearly 45,000 homes that were delisted last year were put back on the market in January, according to real estate brokerage Redfin. That’s the highest number for January since Redfin began tracking this metric a decade ago and represents a record 3.6% of homes that were on the market in January.

The January numbers come as Redfin reported a record number of sellers pulling their homes off the market last September. Nearly 85,000 sellers were delisted, up 28% from September 2024. Last year’s rising mortgage rates, still-high home prices, and growing uncertainty in the economy sidelined buyers last fall, taking sellers out of the driver’s seat, where they had been in years during and immediately after the pandemic.

More sellers have been asked for concessions, and some have just said no, Ashley Romage, a real estate agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in response to CNBC’s fourth-quarter housing market survey in December.

“A lot of the sellers I’ve met and worked with have put their hands in the air and said, ‘If we can’t get what we want for our house now, or what we think it’s worth, we’ll go ahead and take it to the market and try again, maybe in the spring,'” Romag said.

The overall inventory of homes for sale nationally is higher than it was a year ago, but gains are stable, according to Realtor.com. Active listings rose 7.9% in February, year over year, but that number has been shrinking for nine straight months. Listings are still down 17% from 2019, before the pandemic.

“Inventory has been improving for more than two years, but momentum has faltered in recent months,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Supply gains have been concentrated in the South and West and trended toward homes priced under $500,000. While the Northeast and Midwest have seen growth, they are still significantly in short supply.”

With interest rates now near four-year lows, the key question is whether this “thawing” stimulates more buyers or more sellers, Hill said. Mortgage rates have risen slightly in recent days, due to the ongoing war with Iran and renewed concerns about inflation.