America’s housing market is splitting into two lanes. A new Realtor.com report shows prices climbing in cheaper cities while the most expensive metros are finally slipping. Budget conscious buyers are chasing affordability, and frustrated sellers are quietly pulling listings instead of cutting prices.
Delistings are the big story. Realtor.com says sellers removed homes from the market at an unusually high pace in October, up 45.5 percent year to date. About 6 percent of active listings have been coming off the market each month since June. That level of retreat is normally only seen in December or January, the slowest point in the calendar. For many homeowners, delisting is a strategy to avoid dropping prices or letting a stale property sit.
This shift is happening in a market that is still heavy on inventory and light on demand. Buyers are stretched by high rates and high prices, and millions of homeowners remain locked into low mortgage payments they cannot replicate. As affordability deteriorates in marquee metro areas, shoppers are moving into what the report calls the refuge market. Cities like Cleveland and Milwaukee have seen price per square foot jump by 20 percent or more since 2022.
At the top of the market, prices are finally cooling. In San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara, the most expensive metro in the analysis, prices are down 4 percent year over year. Even so, the typical home is still around $1.3 million, showing that a dip does not equal a deal.