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By Rick Tobin
A “stale listing” is defined as a listed residential property that has been on the market for sale for more than 60 days without going under contract after a purchase offer is made.
In February 2026, there was an estimated 52.2% of all U.S. home listings that were “stale” after receiving no purchase offers, according to Redfin. This stale listing percentage number was up from 50.1% one year earlier and the highest number since 2019.
The dollar amount estimate across the nation reached a new record for this time of the year at $347 billion dollars for stale listings. In the same month of February, there were 630,000 more sellers than buyers, as per Redfin.
For all listing inventories nationwide, which includes brand new and older stale listings, the total estimated dollar amount reached a nearly all-time record high dollar amount estimate of $636 billion.
The typical listed home that did sell and go under contract took an average of 66 days on market (DOM), which was the slowest pace in almost a decade.
For comparison purposes, back near the depths of the Great Recession in April 2010, the median number of days it took to sell a listed single-family home in California was 39.4 days, according to the Los Angeles Times.
One year prior in April 2009, the median time on the market was 48.1 days. Back then, many distressed short sales took between six and 12 months to sell.
Worst and Best Stale Listing Cities
The stale listings were most common in the state of Florida, and the least common in the Bay Area near San Francisco.
In Miami, almost two-thirds (62.6%) of home listings were stale in February 2026, which was the biggest stale listing percentage number of all of the major U.S. metro regions. The next most stale listing regions nationwide were found in San Antonio (58.3%), Pittsburgh (58.1%), and in West Palm Beach (55.9%), as per Redfin data.
What’s truly ironic about Miami is that this metro area had both the most stale home listings and the highest percentage rent increase numbers over the past six years among major U.S. cities. Since 2020, average rents jumped 53% to reach $2,645 in January 2026 in Miami, according to Visual Capitalist.
Top 5 Rent Increases by Metros (2020 – 2026)
1. Miami, FL: +53%
2. Tampa, FL: +50%
3. Riverside, CA: +48%
4. St. Louis, MO: +44%
5. Cincinnati, OH: +43%
Source: Visual Capitalist
The best regions for the fewest percentage number of stale listings were found in the Bay Area and Big Tech regions. These areas include San Jose (19.8%), San Francisco (24%), and Oakland (31.1%).
The fourth and fifth best large metro regions for the fewest stale listing percentages were near Disneyland in Anaheim (34%) and in Seattle (34.1%).
Stale California Cities
In California, the Riverside, Sacramento and Los Angeles metropolitan regions now have the highest percentage of “stale” listings at significant dollar amounts, according to KTLA.
1. Riverside, CA: 48.8% (Total value: $5,505,718,830)
2. Los Angeles, CA: 44.1% (Total value: $13,531,277,797)
3. Sacramento, CA: 41.8% (Total value: $1,665,099,987)
4. San Diego, CA: 37.7% (Total value: $2,960,305,403)
5. Anaheim, CA: 34.0% (Total value: $3,804,979,477)
6. Oakland, CA: 31.1% (Total value: $903,312,534)
7. San Francisco, CA: 24.0% (Total value: $687,464,464)
8. San Jose, CA: 19.8% (Total value: $524,074,518)
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Minimal Cash Reserves
A very high percentage of U.S. homeowners have the bulk of their net worth tied up in equity in their primary home where they live. In fact, more than 80% of all net worth held by retired U.S. homeowners is found in the equity in their main home.
A recent study published by the National Institute on Retirement Security found that the average U.S. worker between the ages of 21 and 64 had less than $1,000 available for retirement. For those workers with employer-assisted savings or retirement accounts, the median balance was just $40,000.
Past studies about the amount of money needed to retire comfortably found that Americans needed anywhere between $1.25 and $2.25 million (California, especially), according to reports such as Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study.
Property owners who need cash to pay bills have options available to them like selling their homes and moving down to a smaller place, borrowing against their equity with a 30-year fixed cash-out mortgage, a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) as a 1st or 2nd, or opting for a reverse mortgage with no monthly payments.
Today’s record number of home equity is nearly $17 trillion nationwide, according to the March 2026 Mortgage Monitor report issued by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and shared by CBS News. As such, this is truly a huge number of untapped frozen equity available.
Converting Frozen Equity Into Cash
For both stale residential and commercial property listings, our Realloans team offers asset-based, cash-out loans for investment properties that have been listed for sale for days, weeks, months, or years. These loan products also don’t require the sharing of tax returns to qualify.
These types of bridge loans can be structured with no prepayment penalties so that the borrower can use the cash to purchase other properties even before their listed property sells, or to replenish their savings account and pay some bills as they wait to tap into their frozen equity.
Reverse Mortgage Solutions
A reverse mortgage can be used as a cash-out refinance solution as well as to purchase a new home. Many real estate agents and investors are not aware of the reverse mortgage purchase option, which could create new ways to find clients or sellers as the Baby Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) continues to get older.
Approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers per day surpass the age of 65 here in the US. By 2030, all Baby Boomers will be at least 65 years of age.
There are several different ways that a reverse mortgage borrower can collect funds from their lender at the time of closing or at a later date after the closing of a reverse mortgage.
Let’s take a closer look below at some of the more popular borrowing options and basic qualification requirements for a reverse mortgage:
- The home must be the borrowers’ primary residence.
- Just one of the borrowers in the home must be 62.
- The borrower receives equal monthly advance payment amounts that fit their financial needs.
- The borrower receives a rather large lump sum of money at the closing and access to a line of credit at a later date such as 12 months later. If so, the borrower can decide how much extra money that he or she wants to borrow by writing a check off of the credit line or from an online location.
- The borrower chooses a fixed number of years to collect funds that have a preselected loan period or end date.
- With any reverse mortgage scenario, the IRS doesn’t consider these funds to be taxable income because the money is viewed as a loan.
- The homeowner remains on title during the entire reverse mortgage loan process up until the home is sold or the last remaining borrower passes away.
- Any interest accrued or deferred on a reverse mortgage is not usually deductible until the loan is paid in full with certain other tax restrictions. (tax rules subject to change)
- Some borrowers may wish to place their family trust or some other legal entity as the borrower for the loan and on title to make it easier to pass on the remaining equity in the home to family members or other designated heirs. Please seek competent legal and accounting advice before making this decision.
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Stale Listing Opportunities
A sluggish or stale listing market can be an exceptional opportunity for real estate investors who have access to cash or creative loans so that you can move quickly to purchase stale properties at a discount.
Sellers may be much more willing to negotiate with benefits such as price reductions, seller credits towards your closing costs, and possible leaseback options.
With less competition from buyers here in 2026 as noted by there being a reported 630,000 more sellers than home buyers, this is your year to thrive and prosper as you focus on new buying opportunities and various new ways to access cash and reducing consumer debts at the same time.
Rick Tobin has worked in the real estate, financial, investment, and writing fields for the past 30+ years. He’s held eight (8) different real estate, securities, and mortgage brokerage licenses to date and is a graduate of the University of Southern California.
Rick provides creative residential and commercial mortgage solutions for clients across the nation. He’s also written college textbooks and real estate licensing courses in most states for the two largest real estate publishers in the nation; the oldest real estate school in California; and the first online real estate school in California.
Please visit his website at Realloans.com for financing options, join his investment group at So-Cal Real Estate Investors, and follow his new So-Cal Real Estate TV channel for more details.
Rick Tobin
Realloans (Real Estate Loans)
https://realloans.com/
Phone or Text: (760) 485 – 2422
NMLS 1934868
Equal Housing Opportunity / Equal Housing Lender
To quickly apply online: Loan Application
For our real estate course: Learn Real Estate
Please follow our new real estate channel (watch on television, computers, and phones): So-Cal Real Estate TV
Our Facebook business pages: Realloans, Inside Los Angeles, Inside Pacific Palisades, Inside Long Beach, Inside Huntington Beach, Inside Orange County, Inside La Jolla, Inside San Diego, Inside Lake Elsinore, Inside Temecula Valley, Inside Coachella Valley, and So-Cal Real Estate Investors.
Here are some of my articles: The Fall of 2025 and Rise of New Opportunities, The Intersection of Declining Home Sales and Creative Marketing, Are Lower Rates on the Horizon?, Weather Extremes, Homes, and Insurance Risks, The California Gold Rush Boom, and Are You Focused on Commercial Real Estate?
Please join my So-Cal Real Estate Investors group that meets at Canyon Lake Golf & Country Club, Shoreline Yacht Club in Long Beach, and online: So-Cal Real Estate Investors.
