>Few of those are the people participating in a "panicked sell off".

Eh, if they were on the fence about selling already, declining prices might cause them to pull the trigger before prices decline further. That goes for just about every type of seller I listed. Not exactly panicked, but definitely influenced by price reductions.

>And with rents rising across the country,

That trend reversed in October: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3779075-rent-prices-see-biggest-one-month-drop-in-at-least-7-years-zillow/amp/

>I'm sure short-and long-term investors are doing just fine.

I’m sure the vast majority are perfectly fine. In such a gridlocked real estate market, it doesn’t take many new/unexpected sellers to influence price discovery though.