Buyers in Atlanta, Georgia, are canceling pending home sales at the greatest rate among the country’s top metropolitan areas, new data shows.
In April, 20 percent of pending deals fell out of contract in Georgia’s capital, according to data from brokerage and listings platform Redfin, which analyzed 44 of the 50 most populous metros with sufficient data. Atlanta’s rate is up 2.4 percentage points compared to the year before.
In April, the median home price in Atlanta was $444,000, a 6.3 percent increase year over year, according to Redfin. Homes are taking longer to sell in the city — 45 days on average in April, compared to 38 days in April 2024.
Orlando followed close behind Atlanta, with buyers nixing 19.4 percent of deals. However, that rate is a slight drop from the year before. Floridian cities comprise half of the 10 metros with the greatest cancellation rates in April. In addition to Orlando, Tampa (19.1 percent), Fort Lauderdale (18.9 percent), Miami (18.9 percent) and Jacksonville (18.4 percent) are in that cohort.
Countrywide, pending home sale cancellations have reached the second-highest rate since 2017, when Redfin started tracking the metric. In April, about 56,000 in-contract purchases — 14.3 percent of all sales that went into contract that month — were canceled.
April’s rate is 0.8 percentage points up from the year before. Only in April 2020, the height of the pandemic, was the rate higher.
Among the reasons for the cancellations, according to Redfin, are economic uncertainty stemming from tariffs and layoffs, high home prices and mortgage rates and a buyer’s market contributing to slowed demand. Purchase applications for mortgages recently fell 5 percent as rates near 7 percent.
The metro with the greatest yearly percentage-point increase was Anaheim, California, which saw sale cancellations grow by 3.1 percentage points to 15.7 percent.
Ten of the studied metros saw their cancellation rates fall in April from the year prior. Detroit had the biggest drop, 2.9 percentage points, hitting 13.2 percent.
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