July Housing Market: Contract Cancellations, Sales Uptick & Vacant Homes

🔻 Contract Cancellations Surge

• 58,000 deals fell through in July (15.3% of pending sales).
• That’s the highest July cancellation rate since 2017.
• San Antonio led the nation with 22.7% of contracts canceled.

📈 Existing Home Sales Edge Up

• Existing-home sales rose 2% month-over-month (4.01M annual pace).
• Inventory climbed 15.7% YoY—the most since May 2020.
• Median price: $422,400, a July record but up just 0.2% YoY.
• Luxury sales: $1M+ homes jumped 7.1%.
• Average days on market rose to 28 (vs. 24 last year).
• Supply now at 4.6 months—still shy of a balanced 6-month level.
• Meanwhile, new-home sales slipped 0.6% from June.

🏚 Vacant Investor Homes on the Rise

• Investors held 882,300 vacant homes as of Q3 last year.
• That’s 3.6% of investor-owned stock but a big share of the 1.4M total vacant properties.
• Foreclosures: 222,318 properties in Q3.
• Zombie homes: 7,500 (3.4% of pre-foreclosures), slightly higher than the prior quarter.

What This Means

• More contract fallout suggests buyers are pushing back on pricing, inspections, or financing hurdles.
• The slight sales rebound points to pent-up demand despite higher rates.
• Rising vacancies and zombie homes may pressure certain local markets, especially where investor activity is high.