September 7, 2025 | Mark Luis Foster
Forgive my absence for a few days as I was traveling with my bride in California, exploring the LA/Santa Monica areas for fun. While I was away, I spotted this rather disturbing article about general home sales and rising cancellations of deals. According to Minnesota’s Star Tribune:
During July, 15.3% of all pending home sales in the U.S. fell apart, likely because the buyer had a change of heart or because there was a problem with an inspection or financing. That was a modest increase from last year at this time but the highest share for any July since at least 2017, according to a monthly report from Redfin.
So 15 out of every one hundred sales fall apart. What could be the reason? It’s those inflated mortgage rates that don’t seem to wiggle much.
Working-class buyers are far more sensitive to today’s record prices and elevated mortgage rates, placing their deals in a far more precarious position than buyers with bigger budgets and more cash.
Of course this data doesn’t point specifically to HOA related sales, but it certainly has its effect there, since the report points out that homes in the $350K level or less are taking longer to sell than those homes priced higher due to sensitivity at the buyer level. In other words, buyer’s remorse across the board.
But the data seems off-normal in the Twin Cities, with such cancellations running far less.
The cancellation rate in the Twin Cities metro area, where about 10% of all signed deals were scrapped during July, was among the lowest in the nation. Even so, it was slightly higher than a year ago.
You can read the story HERE. It is possible that the story is behind a paywall at this time.
