Panic is building in America's housing market as a stark new map shows just five cities where sellers still hold the upper hand.

Across the rest of the country, the balance of power has flipped - and it's bad news for homeowners and the wider economy.

There are now more than 43 percent more sellers than buyers nationwide, one of the biggest imbalances on record, according to Redfin.

That shift means buyers are in control and experts say the outcome is clear - it forces sellers to slash prices, offer incentives or pull their homes off the market altogether.

Buyers have stayed on the sidelines in protest at not just high home prices, but also steep mortgage rates and rising costs from insurance to HOA fees. 

In March, 38 of the country's 50 biggest housing markets into buyer's markets - up from 29 just a year ago. 

Just five of the metros Redfin analyzed were still seller's markets in March - down from nine a year earlier, in a sign of how quickly conditions have turned against homeowners. The rest were broadly balanced.

'High property taxes, rising insurance costs and fears about job security are making homebuyers very selective,' said Barb Cooper, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Austin, TX, where sellers outnumber buyers by 112 percent and prices are down around 3 percent over the past year.