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The share of buyers backing out of pending home sales nationwide has hit a new record, according to a new report from Redfin, but in the Greater Boston the trend isn’t nearly so pronounced.

The brokerage and listings portal reported that over 41,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements on single-family and condominium units combined fell through in January, which amounts to 14.3 percent of homes that went under contract. That’s up from 13.4 percent year-over-year.

“Some buyers are getting cold feet with everything going on in the world. But even with more cancellations, there are also more buyers out there in general,” Sam Brinton, a Salt Lake City Redfin agent said in a statement. “The nice homes in desirable locations are selling quickly, and those buyers are less likely to cancel.”

In Greater Boston, though, the share of pending home sales that cancelled steadily trended upward starting in March 2024. In January, 11 percent of pending home sales fell through, an increase from 10.1 the year prior and 9.1 percent in January 2023.

But that figure is still below the 14.8 percent seen in January 2017, the 14.3 percent in January 2018 and the 14.1 percent seen in January 2019.

Redfin researchers credit economic uncertainty and high mortgage rates with the increase in canceled deals. Additionally, home prices are continuing to increase, pushing some buyers out who were making offers at the limits of what they could afford.

The Massachusetts median single-family home price reached a new all-time high for the month of January, rising 6.4 percent on a year-over-year basis to $585,000 according to data from The Warren Group, the publisher of Banker & Tradesman. In Greater Boston, the median single-family sale price increased 8.7 percent on a year-over-year basis to $750,000.

Image courtesy of Redfin

Canceled Pending Home Sales on the Rise, But Boston Still Below Record

by Sam Lattof time to read: 1 min
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