Roughly 53,000 Home Buying Contracts Fell Through in October: Report

In San Antonio, 21 percent of deals were canceled, the highest among 47 metropolitan areas.

A home waiting for a buyer in Washington on May 19, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Around 53,000 home-purchase agreements got canceled in the United States in October amid concerns about high housing costs and other factors, real estate brokerage Redfin said in a Dec. 3 statement.

The 53,000 cancellations represent 15.1 percent of homes that went under contract in October, up from 14.3 percent a year earlier.

One of the reasons home purchase cancellations remain elevated is that the housing market is now a buyer’s market, “with home sellers significantly outnumbering homebuyers,” the brokerage said. “This means buyers in most areas have room to negotiate and the flexibility to take their time; if they decide against one home, they will likely be able to find another one that meets their needs.”

Plus, “high housing costs and economic uncertainty are giving some buyers cold feet,” it said.

The weekly average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.23 percent for the week ending Nov. 26, according to data from Freddie Mac. This is more than double the roughly 3.1 percent rate four years ago.

Meanwhile, the median home sale price was $439,846 in October, up from $379,713 in October 2021, according to Redfin data.

The combined effect of high sales prices and elevated mortgage rates has made housing costs unaffordable for many prospective buyers.

In its Dec. 3 statement, the brokerage said San Antonio, Texas, had the highest rate of home-purchase cancellations in October among 47 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas analyzed by the company, with 21 percent of deals falling through that month.

Other locations with high cancellation numbers were Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville in Florida, Fort Worth in Texas, and Las Vegas in Nevada.

Nassau County in New York had the lowest cancellation rate at 4.4 percent, followed by San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland in California.

“Buyers know they have options, so if a seller isn’t willing to address a maintenance issue, the buyer will walk away,” Tracy Edwards, a Redfin agent in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said. “A lot of sellers are having to adjust their expectations—some still think their home is worth more than the market will bear.”

Mortgage applications declined for the week ending Nov. 28, according to a Dec. 3 statement from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The market composite index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, fell by 1.4 percent from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president, said that while applications to buy a home were slightly up, “we continue to see mixed results each week as the broader economic outlook remains cloudy, even as cooling home-price growth and increasing for-sale inventory bring some buyers back into the market.”

While the 30-year mortgage rate is elevated compared to four years ago, the recent 6.23 percent rate is lower than the yearly peak of 7.04 percent hit in mid-January.

Pending Sales Rise

The pending sales numbers paint a more optimistic view of the housing market.

In October, pending home sales rose 1.9 percent month over month, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a Nov. 25 statement.

Gains were seen in the Midwest, Northeast, and South regions, while the West registered a decline in pending sales.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said job gains in September were reassuring, suggesting the economy was not slipping into a recession.

“This may boost confidence in future homebuying,” he said.

The U.S. economy added 119,000 new jobs in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was much higher than expectations.

In a Nov. 25 commentary, Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at real estate data company Bright MLS, said the dip in mortgage rates and higher inventory likely drove the increase in pending sales in October.

“While lower rates have brought out more buyers this fall, there are still major constraints in the housing market, and home sales activity is likely to be slow through the end of 2025,” she wrote.

“The fundamentals of the U.S. housing market are still strong. But affordability challenges are going to characterize the housing market for years. Lower mortgage rates will help bring out more buyers next year, but it is going to take time before there is better affordability in the market.”