The share of home purchase contracts that were canceled before closing in the D.C. metro is slightly below the national average, but it ticked up in December, and sales that fall through are more of a problem for sellers than it is for buyers.
Redfin reported that 14.3% of pending home sales did not close in December, up from 12.6% in November. Nationally, 16.2% of contracted sales fell through last month.
When a contract falls though, not only did the seller just lose a sale, but the seller may have headwinds to overcome when they re-list the home.
“It can be particularly damaging to the seller, because if they re-list the home they can have this Scarlet Letter on the home’s history that shows that an offer was canceled. That could make buyers start to question if there is something wrong with the home, why did the buyer back out, maybe this home is overvalued,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Jeff Clabaugh over at WTOP
