It was the highest January number in records dating back a decade, promising to boost housing supply and give buyers more negotiating power over sellers.

Why It Matters

Dwindling sales and growing inventory nationwide over the past year have led to a massive imbalance between sellers and buyers in the U.S. housing market—with sellers now outnumbering buyers by more than 600,000, or 44 percent. 

The availability of more homes for sale, together with buyers' reluctance to purchase them due to ongoing affordability issues, have helped put a damper on the vertiginous home price growth reported in the country since the pandemic. In January, the median sale price of a home was $423,029, according to Redfin, up by 1.1 percent compared to a year earlier.

While this is a positive trend for would-be buyers struggling with high prices and elevated borrowing costs, experts began reporting last year that growing numbers of sellers were withdrawing from the market, delisting their properties when they could not sell them at the price they wanted.

What To Know

The high number of relistings in January suggests that many homeowners who stepped back from the market last year after sensing a shift in favor of buyers are now returning to it. 

The relistings in January account for 3.6 percent of active listings in the same month; notably, 36.1 percent of relisted homes returned at a lower price than their original list price—the highest January share dating back to 2016. This shows that these sellers are aware that buyers are now in a position to ask for lower prices, and they are trying to make their listings competitive.