One in Three Home Sellers Cut Prices in This City Last September
Reluctant buyers are forcing sellers to reduce asking prices, with some markets seeing cuts on a third of all listings.
Home sellers in select U.S. markets slashed asking prices at an unusually high rate in September, with one city recording price reductions on roughly one in three listed properties, according to new data highlighted by MarketWatch. The trend reflects mounting buyer hesitation driven by persistently elevated mortgage rates and stretched affordability conditions across much of the country.
The markets experiencing the sharpest and most frequent price cuts are concentrated in areas that saw outsized price appreciation during the pandemic-era housing boom. Sellers in those regions are now confronting a buyer pool that is smaller, more cautious, and increasingly unwilling to meet original listing prices without concessions.
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Analysts note that price reductions serve as a leading indicator of broader market softening. When a significant share of listings require markdowns to generate interest, it signals that initial asking prices have overshot what the current pool of qualified buyers is willing or able to pay — a dynamic that can gradually pull overall home-price indexes lower in subsequent months.
The pattern is not uniform nationwide. Some markets remain comparatively tight, with limited inventory keeping downward pressure on prices at bay. But in metros where supply has rebounded and demand has cooled simultaneously, sellers face the starkest choice between waiting out a slow market or accepting meaningful price reductions to close deals.
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