Sellers Cutting Asking Prices at Highest Share in 18 Months

Is home price growth about to soften? Possibly, as more sellers are now willing to cut asking prices compared to anytime last year.

Across the country, 6.4 percent of sellers slashed their asking price during the four-week period ending on May 26, according to a report from Redfin. That’s the highest share of sellers willing to reduce their listing price since November 2022.

The median asking price also dropped by approximately $3,000 last week. The nation’s median asking price was still a high $416,623, but considering there hasn’t been a drop in the metric in six months, the decrease is notable.

Those aren’t the only numbers pointing towards a potential reversal of sale-price growth. Homes are remaining on the market longer; in May, homes were listed for a median of 46 days, the first increase in eight months. There are also more active listings now, with a 15.2 percent annual uptick, hitting the highest level since the last month of 2022.

Buyers are still saddled with high costs to purchase a house, as the median home sale price is up 4.3 percent from a year earlier to another all-time high, $390,613. Pending sales fell 3.4 percent year-over-year.

The costs of monthly housing payments themselves, however, fell to $2,812 — the lowest level in six weeks — as softening weekly mortgage rates eased financial woes for homeowners. That may be a short-lived victory, though, as daily average mortgage rates started increasing again this week.

Even as mortgage rates have hung closer to 7 percent than 8 percent, prospective homebuyers have heard a steady drumbeat of bad news since the end of the early pandemic buying frenzy.

This month’s Case-Shiller report revealed that home prices jumped to an all-time high in March, rising 6.5 percent year-over-year. For the fourth straight month, every one of the markets tracked in the 20-City Composite recorded annual jumps in prices.