A domain name I was interested in expired in January this year. It was previously registered at Squarespace.com.
Why is it still unavailable to purchase despite being more than a month since its expiry?
Not sure if relevant but I checked the expiry date at: whatsmydns.net/domain-expiration
Basically many domain providers will hold onto domains for a little while after it expires.
Some like namecheap also advertise the domain names to peddle-man companies that will somehow buy temporary access to the domain after your extortion recall window expires.
To continue the namecheap example, when your namecheap domain expires, it gives you a lapse window where you can pay like double the cost of the domain renewal to reclaim it. If you don’t reclaim it during that window they give it to a middleman whom will somehow buy a 2 or 3 months domain lease for it. They will put it on a “site for sale” broker page and will charge yo easily 100x what you paid for the domain if you wanted it back.