New data reveals that a record number of U.S. home-purchase agreements were canceled in December 2025, marking the highest December cancellation rate since 2017. Homebuyers are cancelling deals at record numbers.
New Redfin data shows that about 40,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements were canceled in December, representing 16.3% of homes that went under contract, a jump from 14.9% a year earlier and the highest December rate on record since 2017. Cancellations were highest in Atlanta (22.5%), Jacksonville (20.6%), and San Antonio (20.6%), and lowest in Nassau County (3.8%), San Francisco (4.2%), and San Jose (8.9%).
The data highlight the weak housing market of 2025, which saw even fewer home resales than in 2024, the lowest levels on record since 1995. Experts cite high mortgage rates and home prices, sellers hesitant to lower expectations after missing the market peak, and buyers wary of the economy and long-term commitment.
“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.”Buyers often use inspection contingencies to back out of deals, sometimes citing structural issues even when the real reason is that mortgage payments are too high. Redfin’s data mirrors USA Today’
s November research, which found sellers were also pulling listings from the market at a rate 50% higher than the previous year, according to Realtor.com.“Buyers and sellers are really far apart,” Jake Krimmel, Realtor.com’s senior economist, said, with Joan Rogers, associate principal broker with Windermere Realty Trust in Portland, Oregon, describing it as a “standoff market where sellers still feel that it should be a seller’s market, and buyers feel that it should be a buyer’s market. In consequence, it’s nobody’s market.”
The silver lining for buyers is that mortgage payments have recently fallen with lower interest rates, and home price growth is slowing. Redfin economists predict affordability will improve in 2026 as wages outpace housing costs.
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