The January figures come as Redfin reported a record number of sellers pulling their homes off the market last September. Close to 85,000 sellers delisted, up 28% from September 2024. Higher mortgage rates last year, still-high home prices and growing uncertainty in the economy sidelined buyers last fall, taking sellers out of the driver's seat, where they had been in the years during and just after the pandemic.

Nearly 45,000 homes that were delisted last year were relisted for sale in January, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage. That is the highest January figure since Redfin began tracking this metric a decade ago and represents a record 3.6% of homes that were on the market in January.

The all-important spring housing market is off and running, and while the pace isn't expected to be strong, there are signs of optimism, at least among sellers. Some who gave up last year are jumping back in.

Ashley Rummage, a real estate agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, in response to CNBC's fourth-quarter Housing Market Survey, said in December that more sellers were being asked for concessions, and some just refused.

"A lot of sellers I've encountered and worked with have just thrown their hands up in the air and said, 'If we can't get what we want for our house right now, or what we think is it's worth, then we're gonna go ahead and take it off to market and try again, maybe in the spring,'" Rummage said.

The overall inventory of homes for sale nationally is higher than it was a year ago, but the gains are plateauing, according to Realtor.com. Active listings were up 7.9% in February, year-over-year, but that number has been shrinking for nine straight months. Listings are still down 17% from 2019, pre-pandemic.

"Inventory has improved for more than two years, but the momentum has faltered in recent months," said Danielle Hale, chief economist, Realtor.com. "Supply gains have been concentrated in the South and West and skewed toward homes priced below $500,000. While the Northeast and Midwest have seen growth, they remain significantly undersupplied."

With rates now hovering near four-year lows, Hale said, a key question is whether this "thaw" spurs more buyers or more sellers. Mortgage rates have climbed slightly higher in recent days, due to the ongoing war with Iran and renewed fears over inflation.