Homebuyers gain the upper hand as sellers swamp the market

Sellers in the U.S. housing market are outnumbering buyers by a large margin, giving potential buyers who were in the market negotiating power. But it's not making a dent in the affordability crisis.

In December, there were an estimated 47.1% more home sellers than buyers in the U.S. housing market, which is the largest gap in records since 2013, according to a recent report from Realtor.com. That's up 7.1% from a month earlier, which was also the largest increase since September 2022. It's...