Home Sellers Now Outnumber Buyers by 63% as Housing Costs Keep Climbing

People across the country have been complaining about the rising cost of housing. And while that includes things like maintenance and repairs, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development says the median monthly cost of simply owning a home has hit an all-time high.

According to the findings, people are spending more than $2,100 on their monthly mortgage payment (including taxes, insurance, mortgage payments, and utilities), which is a 3.5 percent increase from the same time last year, according to Scripps News.

Additionally, the findings show that sales of new single-family homes hit a rate of 676,000 in September (when seasonally adjusted), which is a 0.6 percent below the rate from August which was 680,000. They were also 5.3 percent below the rate from September 2025, which was 714,000.

September saw sellers outnumber buyers by 63 percent, according to data from Redfin, which made it the largest gap in at least 10 years. 

Home Prices Also Saw Changes

The median monthly cost of owning a home with a mortgage hit a new record high of more than $2,100. That’s up 3.5% from last year. Read more in link in bio. https://t.co/iZm66vZ4JP

— Scripps News (@scrippsnews) November 3, 2026

The data also showed that home prices had continued to climb, with the median price hitting $400,400 in September 2026. That was 3.9 percent above the August 2026 price, and 3.9 percent below the September 2025 price. 

According to Redfin, the news isn’t all bad, since the data on sellers outnumbering buyers means that hopeful homebuyers now have more negotiating power. In fact, they may have the most power they’ve had since the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis caused the housing market to crash. Not only that, but people in certain Southern metro areas—like Miami, Nashville, and Houston—have the most negotiating power. 

Other Prices Are Higher, Too

Anyone feeling the pain from higher mortgage payments knows that it typically means cutting costs in other areas. According to Forbes, some people are cutting back on nonessential spending, while others are putting more things on credit. With high interest rates, that makes borrowing even more expensive, compounding the issue.  

According to the experts who spoke with Money.com, things may be this way for a while.

“Average prices as measured by CPI are up about 30 percent since 2019,” Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY Parthenon, told the outlet. “Consumers shouldn’t expect prices to return to where they were before the inflation surge, as that would likely require a significant economic downturn and sustained deflation; inflation should cool over time, but that simply means prices rising more slowly, not falling.”