Stubborn Sellers Are the Last Thing Propping Up Home Prices
A facts-only brief, written by a local AI model from this article in The Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2026. It may contain mistakes, and it is not the article: the full story is at wsj.com.
U.S. home prices are unlikely to fall sharply because homeowners are not acting as motivated sellers, despite mortgage rates reaching 7.4% and a significant surplus of listings. Redfin data indicates that 1.5 million Americans were attempting to sell homes in September, while only 929,000 were buying, creating the largest seller surplus in the firm’s records since 2013. Although the median home price rose 8% to $417,500 according to the National Association of Realtors, buyers have gained bargaining power, with a fifth of sellers lowering their asking prices in late September. Jim Egan, a U.S. housing strategist at Morgan Stanley, notes that owners are not behaving as if they are under pressure to sell, likely due to a stable job market and low delinquency rates.
Background
- Intercontinental Exchange data shows that more than a third of outstanding home loans now have rates above 5%, up from a fifth in 2023, which is reducing the lock-in effect that previously kept inventory low.
- Zillow data reveals that home values in Austin, Texas, have dropped 27% from their 2022 peaks, indicating pockets of distress in the Sunbelt region where supply exceeds demand.
- Owners’ equity currently represents 72% of the total value of U.S. housing, a significantly higher cushion than the 55% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2007 before the last major housing crash.
- Foreclosure rates have increased following tightened rules on Federal Housing Administration mortgage assistance, though the share of distressed selling remains small.
Read the full article at wsj.com
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