Quiet quitting hits the housing market: Tight inventory and still-high mortgage rates keep would-be buyers sidelined

The housing market seems to be taking a page from the labor market's playbook right now. 

Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's chief economist took to Twitter last week to describe the sluggish sector: 

"Homeowners are quiet quitting the housing market."

The phrase has become somewhat hackneyed over the last several months — it describes employees doing minimal possible work to skate by in their jobs — but applying it to Americans looking for homes is a new twist. 

Fairweather made her comment in response to new home listings being down more than 20% from a year ago in April. 

In effect, more and more homeowners are choosing to stay put with their low mortgage rates locked in, rather than trying to finance a new home at rates that are hovering around 20-year highs.