Nearly 53,000 U.S. home-sale agreements fell through in March, equal to 13.4% of homes that went under contract that month. This share is up from 12.5% a year earlier and tied with 2023 as the highest March share on record, aside from the pandemic panic of 2020.
According to new data from Redfin based on an analysis of MLS pending-sales data, San Antonio led the major metros with 18.7% of home purchase agreements terminating early. That Texas market was followed Orlando (18.1%), Riverside, California (18.1%), Atlanta (18%) and Las Vegas (17.8%). Riverside recorded the greatest year-over-year uptick in cancelations, rising from 15.1% in March 2025.
Contract cancellations are least common in New York’s Nassau County, where just 3.5% of deals fell through in March. Other market with lower-than-average cancelation rates were Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County (5.7%), Milwaukee (6.1%), New York City (7.4%) and Seattle (8.5%).
Redfin attributed the spike in cancelations to the power that buyers now enjoy in market with a 600,000-surplus of sellers, along with elevated housing costs and economic uncertainty.
“Buyers are getting cold feet,” said Patricia Ammann, a Redfin Premier agent in Arlington, Virginia. “There have been layoffs, ups and downs in the market and geopolitical turmoil–and on top of all that, housing costs are still high. Because buyers are considering committing to spending so much money in uncertain times, they’re extremely picky, which is leading some of them to back out before a deal closes.”
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