Not long ago, an American homeowner could reasonably expect to sell a house quickly — and often for more than the asking price. That is no longer a winning bet.

Across the country, a stagnant housing market has left many sellers in limbo, unable to relocate for a new job, buy a larger home for a growing family, or follow through on other major life decisions that require selling first. Because selling one home is often a precondition for buying the next, a stalled listing can hold careers, family plans, and finances in place — the dynamic at the heart of the stories below.

Sellers who have the option to pull their listings off the market generally are doing so, real estate agents say. Those who cannot face mounting pressure not only to cut their asking price but also to kick in thousands of dollars toward a buyer's costs.

The trend marks a stark turn from earlier this decade, when sellers often received well above their asking price as home shoppers empowered by rock-bottom mortgage rates fueled a buying frenzy that sent home prices soaring.

Now the market is stalled by surging mortgage rates, the compounding effect of years of rising home prices, and an economic outlook dimmed by high inflation. The forces compound each other: higher borrowing costs raise the effective price of every dollar financed, on top of sticker prices that have climbed for years. Those factors are putting homeownership out of reach for many buyers, while others are delaying a purchase in hopes of more favorable conditions, perhaps in the spring.

Sellers easily outnumber buyers and are stuck between uneasy choices: become more aggressive on price cuts and concessions to woo buyers, or hold out longer, even if it means delaying major life plans.

"The dynamic has shifted back toward more of what we call buyers' markets rather than sellers' markets," said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial. "(That) means you might have to reduce your price, you might give a concession to get your home sold, it might have to stay on market longer."

The labels matter for negotiation: in a buyers' market, listings outnumber demand and shoppers hold the leverage; in a sellers' market, the balance and the leverage flip.

A Year on Hold in Texas

With her three kids no longer living at home, Liz Suder decided to sell her four-bedroom, 3.5-bath house in Murphy, Texas, about 20 miles outside Dallas, and buy a smaller place.

"I was waiting to sell the house before I started looking," said Suder, 56. "I didn't want to have two mortgages."

Instead, Suder wound up putting her life on hold for more than a year. The finance director, who owned the home for 21 years, initially listed the house in April 2025 for $750,000. Six months later, despite lowering the price several times, the home still had not sold and she took it off the market.

Suder relisted the home in February for $725,000 ahead of the spring homebuying season — traditionally the busiest stretch of the year for buyer traffic, and the window many sellers count on to clear inventory. But it was not until recently that a buyer agreed to purchase it for $650,000. She sweetened the deal by kicking in $9,000 toward repairs.

"I never expected it to take a full year, and for me to have to reduce the price by that much," she said.

A Divorce-Driven Sale That Stalls in Washington

Rick Ganga needs to find a buyer for his home in the coastal city of Blaine, Washington, before he can begin the next chapter of his life. He is going through a divorce that requires the home to be sold.

The three-bedroom, 2.5-bath house has drawn multiple showings since it went on the market on June 1 for $825,000. Lowering the price to just under $800,000 has not helped.

"There's (been) no offers, virtually zero traffic," saidanga, 58.

Ganga said some sellers in his neighborhood have dropped their asking prices by $100,000 or more, but because he has owned his home only since 2022, he has not built up enough equity to cut the price any further. Equity — the share of a home's value an owner actually holds once the remaining mortgage balance is subtracted — effectively sets the floor for how far a price can fall before a sale no longer covers what the owner owes.

"That's not anything I'm going to entertain," he said. "It doesn't make sense."

Until the home sells, the operations manager has little choice but to set aside plans to transfer with his company to another state.

"I honestly believe that it will probably sit until spring or summer of next year," he said.

Mortgage Rates Near a Three-Year High

After briefly dipping below 6% in February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage surged as high as 7.4% this month, its highest level in nearly three years. The upward march in rates has stifled U.S. home sales. Because the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is the dominant loan product in the U.S., its level largely sets the monthly cost of buying a home.

With many sellers lowering their asking prices, the national median home listing price declined 1.2% year over year in September to $419,250, the 11th consecutive monthly drop, according to Realtor.com. About 21% of listings in September had their initial price lowered, a four-year high.

It is not unusual these days for home shoppers to ask for — and receive — money from sellers toward their closing costs, the loan, title, and transaction fees that come due at settlement. Higher mortgage rates are also giving buyers leverage to press sellers for funds to buy down their rate for a few years or for the life of the loan, reducing their overall borrowing costs. A temporary buydown trims the rate for the first years of a loan, while a permanent one applies for its full term.

"It's sort of like an indicator of where the market is right now, with buyers gaining leverage at the expense of sellers, and sellers doing more now to meet buyers halfway," said Jake Krimmel, a senior economist at Realtor.com.

That is good news for home shoppers, but it may not be enough to overcome the affordability hurdles keeping many prospective buyers out of the market. Last month there were about 63% more sellers than homebuyers across the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, according to an analysis by Redfin. The number of buyers — roughly 929,000 — was the fewest on record dating back to 2013, while the tally of sellers jumped to its highest level since 2020.

For sellers, that imbalance narrows the options: cut the price and offer concessions to reach a thin pool of active buyers, or wait — as many of those buyers are — for conditions to improve, perhaps in the spring. Whether the delayed shoppers show up, and how long rates hold near three-year highs, are the markers that will signal how long the standoff runs.

Feeling Stuck in Oregon

That considerable imbalance between buyers and sellers means Ethan Butner may have a long wait before he sells his home in Troutdale, Oregon, about 16 miles east of Portland.

Butner, a service manager, already has an offer accepted on a new, more spacious home for him and his family near Portland. First he needs to find a buyer for his three-bedroom, two-bath house so he can put the proceeds toward the new home.

So far, it is not going well. The house has been on the market for more than two months at $480,000. Butner slashed $30,000 off his asking price, but that generated only one offer, which fell through.

He recently installed a new hot water heater and dishwasher and replaced the flooring in hopes of making the property more attractive.

"It's been a roller coaster of emotion for myself, my family, especially my fiancée," said Butner, 36. "We've had this vision of being in our own home and all the kids having their own rooms and all the good stuff that comes along with that. We definitely feel stuck at the moment."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.