Home Listings Are Ebbing Even as Sales Pick Up and Prices Cool. It’s a Bad Sign for Buyers.

(HOMESALES1219)

Key Points

• Sales of previously owned homes rose 0.5% to 4.13 million units in November, the highest level since February.
• The median home price increased 1.2% year-over-year to $409,200, marking the slowest growth rate since July.
• Housing inventory growth is stalling, with 1.43 million homes listed in November, a 7.5% increase from last year.

Home sales inched up while price growth cooled in November, but a slowdown in listings is a worrying sign for buyers under the surface.

Sales of previously owned homes increased 0.5% from the month prior to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. It’s the highest level since February, but remains low historically, with sales down 1% from the year prior.

The median home sold for $409,200. That is up 1.2% from the same month last year, but the slowest rate of growth since July. “Wage growth is outpacing home price gains, which improves housing affordability,” National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.

The report would be a welcome one for buyers waiting for housing conditions to improve—if it weren’t for a slowdown in inventory. The amount of time it would take to sell through every home on the market decreased to 4.2 months from 4.4 one month prior, indicating an ebbing in supply relative to demand.

More listings give buyers additional choices and takes some of the upward pressure off prices. Listings have been on the upswing over the past several years, resulting in slowing price appreciation.

The number of homes listed at the end of the month in November was 1.43 million, 7.5% higher than one year prior but the slowest increase from one year ago since January 2024.

“The growth in inventory is beginning to stall,” Yun said. Housing tends to slow seasonally during the winter, the economist noted—but unmotivated homeowners also play a role. “We don’t have desperate home sellers,” he said. Sellers who don’t have to move might be choosing not to list through the holidays, preferring instead to relist their homes in the spring.

It isn’t the first sign of sellers pulling back. Redfin on Thursday said that new listings in the four weeks ended Dec. 14 were 3.1% lower than one year ago, the largest such decline in over two years. “Many prospective sellers are reluctant to list their home while the market is tilting toward buyers, with some waiting until the new year to see if demand improves,” the brokerage wrote in a release.

Write to Shaina Mishkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com