Delistings Surge as Frustrated Sellers Pull Back—and 3 Pandemic Boomtowns Are Getting Hit Hardest

This year has been challenging for homebuyers struggling with affordability headwinds, but sellers haven’t had it easy either, often pulling listings off the market in frustration after their price expectations were not met. 

Delistings in October jumped nearly 38% compared with a year earlier, again surpassing inventory growth, according to the November 2025 monthly housing trends report from Realtor.com®. Year to date, delistings were up roughly 45% from the same period in 2024.

Since June, about 6% of listings have been removed from the market by sellers each month, cementing 2025 as the year with the highest national delisting rate since Realtor.com began tracking this metric in 2022.  

The October data on delistings was included in the November report because researchers always allow one month to determine whether a delisted home was actually sold or truly withdrawn from the market by the seller.

"The delisting trend is a perfect personification of the stagnant and frustration-filled housing market," says Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel. "With buyers and sellers far apart, the sellers’ solution is to pull that trump card and delist, rather than cut prices."

In an ironic twist, Krimmel notes, this "emergency exit" for sellers actually keeps the market stuck in a rut by shrinking the inventory, putting upward pressure on prices, and in the process sending both buyers and sellers back to square one.

Sellers pull back from the market

What makes 2025 unusual in terms of delistings is that in a typical year, fewer sellers call it quits during the summer because the market sees a lot of buyer activity. By fall and winter, demand typically softens and the remaining sellers often choose to delist during this slow period and then try again in the spring.

But Krimmel says this year, the delisting season arrived well ahead of schedule, surging 48% year over year in June when homebuying was expected to ramp up. The following month, the delisting rate climbed even higher, jumping 57% compared with the same period in 2024.

"Sellers came to market and inventory in many metros boomed, but the buyers never really showed up this summer," says Krimmel. "Between higher than expected interest rates and home prices, low consumer sentiment, and broader economic uncertainty, demand was extremely low."

Researchers also compared the rate of delistings to the rate of new listings. In October, the national delisting-to-new-listing ratio reached 0.27, roughly the same as in August. That means that for every 100 newly listed homes, 27 previously listed homes were yanked from the market by unsuccessful sellers—up from 20 delistings a year ago.

Put differently, one home was delisted for about every three to four new listings in October, reflecting growing frustration among sellers.

As in prior months, delistings remain most common in pandemic-era boomtowns concentrated in the inventory-rich South and West, where prices have been falling. 

Miami stood out for having the highest ratio of delistings to new listings, at 45, down from 60 in August but up from 34 in October 2024. 

Denver took silver with 39 delistings per 100 new listings, up from 37 in August and 24 year over year. 

Houston followed with a ratio of 37 per 100, down from 40 in August but up from 31 compared with the same period last year. 

Two California metros—Los Angeles and neighboring Riverside rounded out the top five with delisting ratios of 33 and 32, respectively, according to the latest Realtor.com ranking.

Miami continues to lead in delistings

Miami has topped the delistings list for each of the last five months, in part as a result of falling demand for housing driven by high interest rates and rising insurance premiums, HOA fees, and property taxes.

At the same time, Miami sellers tend to be particularly price-anchored and patient, says Krimmel.

In November, Miami had the highest time on market among the nation's top metros, at 84 days. The city's selling pace has experienced the biggest slowdown on an annual basis, with the typical home in Miami waiting for a buyer 10 days longer than in November 2024.

"Despite this tepid pace, there are price cuts on just 15% of Miami listings—below the national average," says Krimmel. "It's clear Miami sellers would strongly prefer not to budge much on price and would rather delist and wait the market out instead."

Delistings surge in Denver

Denver saw its delisting ratio increase dramatically from 30 to 39 in a single month following a steady rise in the rankings from May through August.

Amanda Snitker, a Denver real estate agent and chair of Denver Metro Association of Realtors®' Marketing Trends Committee, says it is not uncommon for local sellers to pull back from the market in the fall and winter, whether due to holiday travel and events, or simply wanting to pause if a listing is not drawing much interest.

"The sellers need a break and feel that the home will show better during a warmer season, which correlates with more buyer activity," Snitker tells Realtor.com.

Some sellers use this time to make updates to the home—such as giving the property a fresh coat of paint or replacing the carpet—to get it ready for relisting in the spring and early summer in hopes of offloading it faster and for a higher price.

Snitker acknowledges that the spike in delistings is driven by seller frustration, but she stresses that this frustration is not solely about not achieving their desired price.

"Buyers are having a hard time deciding to purchase a home in general," says the agent. "It isn't necessarily about a specific home, which makes it hard for sellers to make decisions that appeal to buyers."   

Snitker says she expects delistings to continue through the winter, but the inventory is expected to improve starting around February or March.

For delistings to recede, Snitker says the market needs more buyers, who are likely to come off the sidelines if affordability improves—but lower mortgage interest rates alone won't solve the problem.

"Inflation, economic uncertainty, and events like the government shutdown have created a cautious environment for both buyers and sellers," says the agent. "Policy and general economic stability would create a more confident environment for buyers to enter the market."

Krimmel agrees, explaining that to reverse this trend, buying power and seller expectations have to move closer together through factors highlighted by Snitker: lower borrowing costs, more certainty around jobs and inflation, and clearer guidance on the Federal Reserve's policies, alongside a more realistic approach to pricing.

"Many 2025 would-be sellers now have the lived experience of a failed listing. If they relist in 2026 with more realistic pricing and terms, delistings could normalize," says the economist.