Homes are sitting on the market longer, and the buyers looking at them are taking their time in a way that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. The typical U.S. home that sold in January spent 64 days on the market before going under contract — the longest span in six years — according to Redfin’s own housing market data.
A Buyer Pool That Has Gotten Pickier, Not Smaller
Pending home sales fell 3.3 percent year-over-year even as more sellers listed their homes, per Redfin, and the company’s Homebuyer Demand Index dropped roughly 5 percent from the prior month and 15 percent from a year earlier. That is not a buyer pool that has disappeared — agents describe house hunters who had stepped back from the market as “trickling back,” in Redfin’s own words, but doing so far more cautiously than in past cycles.
Why Buyers Are Taking Their Time
The hesitation traces to a mix of economic uncertainty, elevated housing costs, and unease over layoffs rippling through the broader economy, according to Redfin’s reporting. With mortgage rates still hovering above 6 percent, buyers who are shelling out that much for a monthly payment increasingly want to be certain about a house before committing — touring it more than once, comparing it more directly against competing listings, and generally treating an accepted offer as the end of a longer decision process rather than an impulsive win in a bidding war.
What Slower Decisions Mean for Sellers
For sellers, the practical effect of a more deliberate buyer pool is a market that behaves less like an auction and more like a negotiation. Homes that would have gone under contract within days during the height of pandemic-era competition are now sitting for weeks while buyers weigh their options, tour comparable properties, and wait to feel confident rather than rushed. Agents describe this shift as buyers regaining a small amount of leverage after years of feeling like they had none — even if affordability itself has not meaningfully improved to make the decision any easier once they do commit.
A Market Rebalancing, Slowly
None of this points to a housing market in freefall. It points to one where both sides are recalibrating: sellers listing homes at a pace that suggests confidence, buyers responding with caution that suggests they no longer feel they have to move fast to avoid losing out entirely. Whether that balance holds through the rest of the year likely depends less on any single data point than on whether mortgage rates and the broader economy give buyers a reason to feel less like they need to double- and triple-check every decision before signing.
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