March 2025 was so eventful that we are creating multiple articles to help recap the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors market! 

March was a historic month for Previously Owned Single Family Homes. I’ve provided a breakdown below and used my traditional method of approaching a complex topic by breaking it down into Supply, Demand and What Does This Mean.

Supply:

Previously Owned Single Family Homes had a record setting 888 homes added to the market (new listings) in March. That’s the most in recent history and my database goes back to 2007. Here’s the last 4 Marches (nobody likes looking at 2020): 2024  (710), 2023 (671), 2022 (760), and 2021 (740). 888 previously owned homes being added to the market is a historical number!

Demand:  

Pending sales rose 6.6% over last March (2024: 558 to 2025: 595) showing that people are buying homes. This is a relief especially after a historically slow February (only 435) last month. The spring market stuttered out of the gate. Compared to other recent Marches, however, it’s a mediocre month of demand. In March 2021, there were 791 pending properties and in March 2022, there were 694. Last month, with 595 pending, it shows the market is back on track with demand and active buyers but does not reflect a historical surge in demand.

What does this mean?

There’s a historic wave of properties being added to the market and it’s being met with normal demand. Two things will happen: prices will come down or sellers simply won’t sell their property. Looking at the latest 18 months of data, sellers are choosing the latter: their properties are withdrawing or expiring on the market. Here are the 1st quarter Withdrawn and Expired Listings in recent years: 2021- 450, 2023- 618, 2024-764, 2025- 1070. That’s a 30% increase in homes that failed to sell compared to last year. 

This is an interesting phenomenon that keeps prices high, keeps sellers from selling and buyers from buying. That said, God bless America and private property rights. As long as you’re paid up on your mortgage, nobody can make you sell your home. The big question is this latest wave: how many of these sellers are motivated sellers that will react to market forces and lower their price to secure a buyer? If enough of them sell, this will impact future appraisals and the lower priced, sold home becomes comps for future comparable market activity reports and future comparable sales on appraisals. This will churn the market down in areas where sellers lowered their prices. 

All of this is predicated on nothing changing. A big factor like interest rates being lowered could spark consumer demand. The FED hasn’t indicated they are going to lower interest rates. Another factor would be the overall economy and at the moment, there’s enough uncertainty to tamp down demand. If that changes, so could demand. As always, if you would like us to take a look at your specific situation and provide guidance, we’re here to help!