VENDORS STRUGGLE TO SELL OLD LISTINGS
The number of Sydney homes stagnant on the market rose significantly.
By Terry Christodoulou
Fri, Jun 17, 2022 3:43pm
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The number of old listings has risen sharply in Sydney and Melbourne in May as vendors struggle to find a buyer within a reasonable timeframe amid falling demand according to data from SQM Research.
The number of Sydney homes on the market for longer than six months rose by 9.6% to 4032 in May. In Melbourne, it’s a similar story up 6.3% to 6378. This build-up of older listings will continue to heap downward pressure on prices as the market moves into a correction.
Staggeringly, across the country, there are 49,813 homes on the market for at least 180 days.
According to SQM research managing director Louis Christopher, this number is only going to increase with further rate rises predicted and fewer buyers coming on to the market.
“There are fewer buyers compared to available stock, which means older stock is piling up, and it’s taking longer to sell property.”
Sydney inner west saw the number of homes on the market for at least six months jump by 18.6%. In the eastern suburb, it climbed by 11.4% and on the northern beaches by 24%.
Old stock in the inner east Melbourne rose by 5%, and 11% in the north-west of Melbourne.
Outside of the major east coast markets of Sydney and Melbourne, listings of over 180 days have also increased in Perth, up 3.4% to 4032, while in Canberra they rose 4.8% to 219, and in Hobart by 13.3% to 213.
There was a small lift in older listings in Adelaide and Darwin while Brisbane bucked the trend dropping 5.5%.
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The US housing market remains under pressure as high mortgage rates continue to weigh on affordability and demand. Industry leaders say 2026 has been one of the toughest years for home sales, with slower price growth, weaker mortgage activity, and fewer buyers entering the market. However, experts say reduced competition and more price cuts could create opportunities for well-prepared buyers.
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Mon, Aug 10, 2026 2 min
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The typically busy spring season for the housing market was a dud, and the summer isn’t looking much brighter.
Housing services companies like Zillow Group and Rocket RKT +3.78% were loud and clear last week on earnings calls: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna called the quarter through June “one of the toughest spring housing markets in years.”
Jeremy Hofmann, Zillow’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call that the company predicted earlier this year that the market for mortgages would be flat. “We actually now think it’s going to be down low-to-mid-single digits,” he said.
The rest of 2026 will remain challenging for mortgage origination volume, says KBW analyst Bose George. The question now is what happens in 2027. “If mortgage rates remain [around] 6.75%, I think that’s going to be challenging even for next year,” he says.
But what’s bad news for mortgage companies could be a positive for bargain hunters. Buyers can expect prices to grow more slowly—or mildly decline—with less competition as long as mortgage rates remain unpredictable.
Mortgage rates at the beginning of the year were solidly below year-ago levels, notes Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. But they surpassed last year’s levels recently, she adds, referencing Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of 30-year fixed mortgage rates. Last week’s reading, at 6.69%, was higher than year-ago levels for the first time in 2026.
“From the affordability point of view, it’s going to get more challenging in the second half of the year,” she says. “And when affordability gets more challenging, that impacts sales and home price appreciation.”
Mortgage application data tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association has cooled since the beginning of the year. The trade group expects that the number of mortgage originations in the remaining two quarters will lag behind last year’s levels, after exceeding 2025 levels in the first half.
Rocket’s early-stage data—which the company told Barron’s it derives from its brokerage Redfin, demand for its mortgage products, and signs in its servicing portfolio that a homeowner is preparing to refinance or move—“leads us to expect the third quarter mortgage market to be smaller than the second,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Brown, said on the company’s call. He added that such an occurrence is “something the industry has not seen since 2022.”
Prices will be about flat nationally, Ng says. Zillow’s most recent forecast, which shows how values are expected to change in the year ending June 2027, show them dropping in roughly half of the 100 largest U.S. metros for which data is available.
Buyers aren’t rushing in at a time when mortgage costs are rising and unpredictable. But those with the right combination of patience and cash could stand to benefit. “If you are financially qualified to buy a starter home, you are facing less competition and you’re more likely to get a price cut,” Ng says.
