Jacksonville Leads Country in Canceled Home-Sale Agreements

The Jacksonville market led the nation in home-sale agreement cancellations in July, according to real estate brokerage Redfin.

Nationwide, the highest rate of canceled home-purchase agreements in two years took place last month, as 16.1% of homes deals were called off.

Only COVID-inflicted March and April 2020 figured worse since the data were tracked.

“With competition declining, the house hunters who are still in the market are enjoying newfound bargaining power—a stark contrast from last year, when they often had to pull out every stop in order to win,” according to the report.

Jacksonville Buyers ‘Skittish’

Florida real estate agents tell Redfin they are taking notice.

Jacksonville’s Heather Kruayai said buyers are skittish because they’re afraid a potential recession could cause home prices to drop. 

“They don’t want to end up in a situation where they purchase a home and it’s worth $200,000 less in two years, so some are opting to wait in hopes of buying when prices are lower,” Kruayai said.

Jacksonville’s Alexis Malin warns that there’s no guarantee buyers will be able to find better deals in the future. She said annual home-price growth has started to slow—to 8% today from 17% a year ago. “But prices are still on the rise and Redfin economists don’t expect them to crash,” she said.

“Some buyers who are backing out of deals have this mindset that the market is crashing and they’ll be able to get a home for $100,000 less in six months. That’s not necessarily the case. Homes in many parts of Florida are still selling for a pretty penny, so I warn my buyers that the grass might not actually be greener on the other side.”

Jacksonville led Redfin’s survey with 800 home-purchase agreements called off in July, equal to 29.3% of homes that went under contract that month.

Bridgeport, Conn., ‘Toughest Place’ to Sell a Home

In another study, the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., market, followed by Cape Coral-Fort Myers and North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton are the toughest places to sell a home, according to luxury home brokerage RubyHome.

RubyHome’s rankings take into account the difference between the listing and final sale price of homes in each area, the average number of days each home stays on the market, the number of new monthly listings, and the percentage of homes that have their price cut during their listing, based on Zillow’s housing data for the top 93 metro areas.