---
title: "Homebuyers are backing out of deals at the fastest pace in nearly a decade"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/273879832.md"
description: "Homebuyers are canceling deals at the highest rate in nearly a decade, with over 16% of signed contracts in December being withdrawn. This reflects ongoing economic uncertainty and a surplus of home inventory, leading to increased selectivity among buyers. The gap between sellers and buyers reached a record high, with 47% more sellers in the market. Regions like Atlanta and Jacksonville experienced the most cancellations, while New York saw the least. The trend suggests weak closed sales in the upcoming months due to high cancellation rates."
datetime: "2026-01-27T18:16:46.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/273879832.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/273879832.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/273879832.md)
---

# Homebuyers are backing out of deals at the fastest pace in nearly a decade

A "sale pending" sign is posted in front of a home for sale on November 30, 2023 in Larkspur, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Serious headwinds in the housing market and the broader economy are tanking **home sales** at an alarming rate.

More than 40,000 signed home purchase agreements were canceled in December, representing 16.3% of all homes that went under contract, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage. That's up from 14.9% in December 2024.

It's is also the highest share since Redfin began tracking this metric in 2017.

"High housing costs and rising inventory have made homebuyers more selective," said Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin. "Home sellers outnumber buyers by a record margin, meaning the buyers who are in the market have options and may walk away if they believe they can find a better or more affordable home."

There were roughly 47% more home sellers than buyers in the market in December (or 631,535 more, in numerical terms), according to a separate Redfin report. That is the largest gap in records dating back to 2013 and up 7.1 percentage points from the previous month.

"I call 2025 the year of the seller, because I had so many sellers reach out," said Ashley Rummage, a real estate agent from Raleigh, North Carolina, who participated in the most recent CNBC Housing Market Survey. "They were reaching out because they had a lot of fear around the economy. They had a lot of uncertainty around the current administration, mortgage rates, affordability. These are all challenges this year."

Regionally, Atlanta saw the most contract cancellations in December (22.5%), followed by Jacksonville, Florida (20.6%), San Antonio, Texas (20.6%), Cleveland, Ohio (20.2%) and Tampa, Florida (19.4%). Cancellations were the least common in the New York metropolitan area, San Francisco and San Jose, California.

Pending sales actually dropped an outsized 9% in December from November, according to the National Association of Realtors, so the numbers were already low. Given the high rate of cancellations, closed sales in January and February are likely to be quite weak.

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