More than half of February listings sat 60 days or longer.
More listings and fewer buyers continue to define the United States housing market into early 2026. Thousands of homes sit on the sidelines as negotiations dragged and pricing misfires piled up.
Real estate giant Redfin’s latest analysis of February listings pointed to that trend hardening. More than half (52.2%) of homes on Redfin.com have been on the market at least 60 days without going under contract, up from 50.1% a year earlier and the highest share since 2019.
In dollar terms, sellers have been sitting on roughly $347 billion worth of “stale” inventory nationwide – a record for this time of year.
Redfin defined stale inventory as listings that spent at least 60 days on the market and are still active as of the final day of the month.
“Sellers know it’s a buyer’s market, but they still want to get as much money as they can for their home. So they list on the high end, expecting buyers to negotiate down, and that’s leading to listings staying on the market for a long time,” said Jason Gale, a Redfin Premier agent in New Orleans.
“There are still deals to be made, but nine times out of 10, homes are selling for under their asking price. But sometimes, the price is just too high, and sellers have to pull their home off the market after six months or so.”
Redfin’s metro‑level breakdown showed the sharpest buildup in Florida.
Nearly two‑thirds of listings in Miami were stale in February (62.6%), with San Antonio, Pittsburgh and West Palm Beach also above 55%.
By contrast, just 19.8% of listings in San Jose and 24% in San Francisco met the 60‑day threshold, underscoring how the Bay Area remained relatively supply‑constrained even as other regions tilted toward buyers.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently reported that existing‑home sales started 2026 on a weak note at roughly a 3.9‑million annualized pace, with just over 1.2 million homes for sale. That's still well below pre‑pandemic norms and roughly a 3 to 4‑month supply by historical standards.
However, in February, NAR reported a 1.7% month‑over‑month rise in existing home sales to an annual pace of 4.09 million, beating many economists’ expectations.
Sales were still down 1.4% from a year earlier, and inventory, while up 4.9% year‑over‑year to 1.29 million units, remained lean at 3.8 months of supply – a level that continued to favor sellers rather than buyers.
“Housing affordability is improving, and consumers are responding,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.
“Still, there is a long way to go to return to pre‑pandemic levels of transaction activity. There are more than 6 million more jobs than in 2019, yet home sales per year are down by one million.”
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