Americas home sellers now outnumber buyers by 63% the biggest gap since the housing crash

The tables are turning in America’s housing market, with house hunters gaining the upper hand in much of the country — though some pockets remain fiercely competitive.There were 62.6% more home sellers than buyers nationwide in September, the largest gap in Redfin’s records dating back to 2013, when the housing market was recovering from the Great Recession and housing crash, according to a new report released Wednesday.The imbalance has widened for four consecutive months, up from 56.9% in August, as high housing costs and economic uncertainty continue to keep prospective buyers on the sidelines.An estimated 928,892 Americans were actively looking to buy a home in September, the lowest level on record and down 2.4% from August.Meanwhile, the number of sellers climbed to 1.51 million, the highest since March 2020.The result is a housing market where buyers who can afford to enter have more properties to choose from and greater leverage to negotiate.“This is a buyer’s market born out of caution, not strength,” Redfin senior economist Asad Khan said in the report.“Buyers have tremendous negotiating power in most of the country because so many other would-be buyers have been priced out of the market, or scared off by economic uncertainty,” he added.The shift is especially pronounced across the Sun Belt, where years of robust homebuilding have added inventory even as demand has cooled.Of the 50 major metropolitan areas analyzed, 41 were classified as buyer’s markets — the most in Redfin’s records.Miami led the nation, with 158.9% more sellers than buyers, up from 134.5% in August.

Nashville and Houston followed, while Tampa’s seller surplus jumped to 103.7%, up from 82.2% just a month earlier.Florida’s housing market has faced mounting pressure from rising home insurance premiums, homeowners association fees and an influx of new listings, giving buyers more options and leaving sellers competing for a shrinking pool of house hunters.“Sometime...