Phoenix led U.S. in home delistings, but it's not a buyer's market yet
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More home listings in the Phoenix metro area are being pulled off the market without a sale than anywhere else in the country.
Why it matters: After years of skyrocketing prices, the data indicates that the Valley's residential real estate market is becoming less friendly to sellers.
The big picture: More sellers in the Valley and nationwide are pulling homes off the market, unable to find buyers willing to meet their asking prices.
By the numbers: Phoenix saw nearly 30 delistings for every 100 home listings this May, according to a recent report from Realtor.com.
- And while Denver led the U.S. with 34% of listings with a price cut in June, Phoenix and Austin, Texas, were close behind.
Zoom out: Nationally, 13.6 homes were delisted for every 100 new listings in May.
- Delistings overall jumped 47% from a year earlier.
Context: More home sellers are having trouble finding buyers willing to pay stubbornly high prices, and it seems some sellers prefer to wait out the market rather than accept lower prices, per Realtor.com.
- "Unlike past housing cycles, where falling prices pressured underwater homeowners to sell, today's homeowners benefit from record-high levels of home equity, so they have the flexibility to wait it out," said Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel.
Between the lines: Valley homebuyers still have more negotiating power than in nearly three years, according to Zillow's Market Heat Index.
- Inventory is up 29% from last year, meaning less competition for new listings, Zillow senior economist Kara Ng told Axios.
- A third of Phoenix home listings saw a price cut, and homes are taking an average of 44 days to sell, she said, 16 days longer than last year.
Yes, but: It's still not a buyer's market yet, Mark Stapp, executive director of ASU's Master of Real Estate Development program, told Axios.
- The number of delistings in Maricopa County increased slightly on a month-to-month basis from April through July, but it's a moderate change, he said.
- And the average spread between asking and sale price has more than halved over the past three months, while the median sale price dropped slightly, indicating sellers are more realistic about what they can get.
- The county had 2.61 months of housing inventory in July, and Stapp thinks we need five or six months' worth to truly become a buyer's market.
The bottom line: "This is, I think, getting us back a little bit closer to an equilibrium. And that means we're moving towards a buyer's market. But I wouldn't say that we are in an absolute buyer's frenzy market," Stapp said.
Catch up quick: Phoenix has seen other recent trends indicating the market is worsening for home sellers.
- Data from Redfin showed twice as many sellers (about 32,400) as buyers (nearly 16,200) in the Phoenix area in April, one of the biggest disparities in the U.S.
- And Redfin data from that month showed 47% of real estate listings in Phoenix were "stale," meaning they'd been on the market more than 60 days.