How liquid are TIPS? Are they difficult to buy/sell on the secondary market?

I've been considering TIPS as an inflation hedge. However, I'm not quite sure how liquid these are?

Looking at the secondary market, on Fidelity, what I'm noticing is that the a pretty big bid/ask spread on TIPS that are close to maturity.

• 10/15/2025 TIPS has a bid yield of 1.44%, and an ask yield of 1.04%
• 04/15/2025 TIPS has a bid yield of 1.61%, and an ask yield of 1.439.
• 01/15/2027 TIPs has a big yield of 1.33%, and an ask yield of 1.25%
• 01/15/2029 TIPS has a bid yield of 1.36% and an ask yield of 1.32%.

It seems like the closer you get to maturity, the worse the spread is... which also has me wondering on just how easy a TIPS close to maturity would be to sell?

Specific Use Case: I've been looking to buy a house, which I've generally kept in recurring 4-12 week T-Bills (which are pretty liquid, with little intrest rate risk). However - I may actually put off the home buying decision for another 1-2 years - in which case, I'd like to keep my "down payment fund" safe and protected against inflation. Rather than buying a 1 year T-Bill, I wondered if TIPS might be a better choice of investment. But, if they're not liquid even for me to sell quickly... then it doesn't sound like a good choice.