Home-purchase cancellations · July 2022
Buyers regained leverage as mortgage rates crossed 5% and inventory grew.
Share of home-purchase agreements that fell through in a given month, U.S. average across 93 metropolitan areas with at least 1,000 pending sales in July. Excludes the pandemic-onset months of March and April 2020, when the housing market briefly paused.
16.1%
of U.S. home-purchase agreements fell through in July 2022.
≈63,000 cancellations across 93 metros.
UP FROM 15% (JUNE) and 12.5% a year earlier. Highest rate since pandemic-onset March–April 2020.
JACKSONVILLE 29.3% led the metros · 6 of the top 10 cancellation metros were in Florida.
Source: Katz & Sandoval-Olascoaga (2022), Redfin News · Redfin analysis of MLS data on home-purchase agreements that fell out of contract during a given month · sample: 93 U.S. metropolitan areas with at least 1,000 pending home sales in July 2022 · data is subject to revision as later-closing transactions update.
The analysis uses Redfin's MLS coverage of 93 U.S. metros that recorded at least 1,000 pending home sales in July. The context: 30-year mortgage rates had crossed 5% by mid-2022, lifting the monthly payment on the typical home by nearly 40% year-over-year. Annual home-price growth had slowed from 17% to 8%. As inventory grew and competition dropped (Orlando agents reported 37.4% of offers facing bidding wars in July, down from 81.4% a year earlier), buyers regained negotiating leverage and started exercising it. Florida metros, where 2020–21 price increases left buyers most stretched, posted the steepest cancellation rates.