U.S. housing inventory climbed to its highest level since 2020 in August as new listings accelerated while sales remained weak, giving buyers more negotiating power even as home prices and mortgage rates kept affordability under pressure.
New listings rose 2.6% from July and 4.3% from a year earlier to 393,178, reaching their highest level in more than four years, according to Redfin. Total active listings increased 3.9% month over month and 2.7% year over year to 1.53 million, the highest level since 2020.
Redfin attributed the increase in sellers partly to a fading mortgage-rate lock-in effect, moves prompted by changing life circumstances and homeowners adjusting to a slower housing market.
Demand failed to keep pace with the additional supply. Pending sales edged up 0.1% from July but remained 1.3% below a year earlier, while completed sales fell 0.5% for the month and 0.4% year over year to 291,769.
The imbalance is giving buyers greater leverage. About 59.5% of U.S. homes sold below their original asking price in August, while the average sale-to-original-list-price ratio was 96.4%.
“More listings mean buyers can take their time, compare homes and negotiate instead of feeling pressured to jump on the first decent property they see,” Redfin Head of Economics Research Chen Zhao stated. Buyers may be able to negotiate on price, repairs or closing costs, she added.
Affordability remains a constraint. The median U.S. home-sale price increased 2.2% from a year earlier to $398,596, the highest August level on record, while the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.67%, its highest level in more than a year.
The national figures mask sharp differences among metropolitan markets. New listings increased 25.5% year over year in San Jose, 15.8% in Nashville and 13.7% in Seattle, the three largest gains among the 50 major metros analyzed by Redfin.
Seattle also posted the largest increase in active listings, up 24.2% from a year earlier, followed by Boston at 18.7% and San Jose at 17.7%. Seattle’s median sale price fell 5.3% to $797,192 as pending sales dropped 14.2%.
San Francisco moved in the opposite direction. Closed sales increased 9.5% from a year earlier, the largest gain among the metros analyzed, while its median sale price rose 7.5% to $1.6 million. Redfin attributed some of that strength to wealth generated by the artificial intelligence sector.
Regional differences also showed up in sellers’ ability to hold their asking prices. In West Palm Beach, 85% of homes sold below their original list price, followed by Miami at 83% and Austin and San Antonio at 82% each.
Just 30% of San Francisco homes sold below asking, the lowest share among the markets analyzed. Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, was among the stronger seller markets at 44%, with Redfin attributing the relative competition there to limited housing supply.
Homes nationally spent a median 50 days on the market in August, unchanged both from July and a year earlier, while months of available supply stood at 3.9.
The full Redfin report, including additional metro-level data, is available at https://www.redfin.com/news/new-listings-surge-august-2026.
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