Home sellers are losing confidence in the U.S. housing market. In October, delistings, which are reported with a one-month lag, were up 45.5% year to date and rose nearly 38% from October 2024, according to a new report from Realtor.com.
The report calls it an “unusually high rate,” as this is now the highest delisting year since Realtor.com began tracking in 2022, delistings that started to rise in June and have remained elevated for five straight months.
More potential buyers are heading to what Realtor.com calls “refuge markets.” These are areas where home prices are much more affordable and didn’t see the run-up in prices during the first years of the pandemic.
“Rising delistings and the growth of refuge markets capture the push and pull defining today’s housing market,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a release. “These dynamics reflect how higher rates and years of rapid price growth have rewritten the rules of engagement for both buyers and sellers.”
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Refuge markets are markets that provide more affordable, stable, or accessible housing options compared with expensive or overheated areas. They are places where buyers can find better value, lower prices, and less competition, especially when major cities or high-demand regions become unaffordable or risky.
Key features include lower home prices than high-cost urban areas, stable or moderate demand without extreme price volatility, and less competition from bidding wars. Refuge markets are often located in smaller metros, suburban areas, or secondary cities outside major urban hubs. They tend to attract buyers who are priced out of major cities or who want to reduce risk in uncertain market conditions.
For example, if cities like San Francisco or New York are too expensive, buyers may move to smaller, more affordable cities in the Midwest or South. These areas act as a refuge because they offer housing opportunities without the extreme costs and competition of primary markets. In short, refuge markets are safer, more accessible alternatives for buyers in a high-cost or volatile housing environment.
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As per the report by Realtor.com, price gains are much stronger in refuge markets, like Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they’re up 5.5% year over year and St. Louis where they’re up 5%. Cleveland, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh round out the top-performing refuge markets, with prices in these markets still being 20%-30% lower than the national median.
The U.S. housing market in 2025 is navigating a period of adjustment, reflecting broader shifts in affordability, buyer behavior, and regional dynamics. Rising delistings and the migration toward refuge markets suggest that traditional supply-demand patterns are being reshaped, creating opportunities in previously overlooked areas.
The emergence of smaller metros and secondary cities as attractive alternatives highlights how economic pressures and high mortgage rates are influencing decision-making, but it is unclear whether these patterns will persist or how quickly sellers will respond to evolving market conditions.
This transitional phase underscores the need to monitor affordability, inventory, and migration trends to understand the future trajectory of the housing sector, which may still shift unpredictably.