LOS ANGELES | Not long ago, a homeowner in America might reasonably wager they could sell their home fairly quickly, and for more than their asking price. That’s unlikely to be a winning bet now.
Across the nation, a stagnant housing market is leaving many sellers in limbo, unable to relocate for a new job, buy their next home to accommodate a growing family, or follow through with other major life decisions that necessitate selling their home.
Sellers who have the option to pull their listing off the market are generally doing so. Those who don’t are under increased pressure to lower their asking price and also kick in thousands of dollars toward a buyer’s costs, real estate agents say.
People were interested in these podcasts
The trend marks a stark turn from earlier this decade, when sellers often received well above their asking price as home shoppers empowered by rock-bottom mortgage rates fueled a buying frenzy that sent home prices soaring.
Now, the market is stalled by surging mortgage rates, the compounding effect from years of rising home prices and an economic outlook dimmed by high inflation. Those factors are putting homeownership out of reach for many buyers while others delay a purchase and hope for more favorable conditions, perhaps in the spring.
Sellers easily outnumber buyers and are stuck between uneasy choices: be more aggressive on price cuts and concessions to woo buyers, or hold out longer, even if it means delaying major life plans.
PHOTOS: Home sellers are lowering their price and helping buyers to make a deal in a stagnant market
“The dynamic has shifted back toward more of what we call buyers’ markets rather than sellers’ markets,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial. “[That] means you might have to reduce your price, you might give a concession to get your home sold, it might have to stay on market longer.”
With her three kids no longer living at home, Liz Suder decided to sell her four-bedroom, 3.5-bath house in Murphy, Texas, about 20 miles outside of Dallas, and buy a smaller place.
“I was waiting to sell the house before I started looking,” said Ms. Suder, 56. “I didn’t want to have two mortgages.”
Ms. Suder wound up putting her life on hold for more than a year. The finance director, who owned the home for 21 years, initially put the house on the market in April 2025 for $750,000. Six months later, despite lowering the price several times, the home still hadn’t sold and she took it off the market.
Ms. Suder relisted the home in February for $725,000 ahead of the spring homebuying season. But it wasn’t until recently that a home shopper agreed to buy it for $650,000. She sweetened the deal by kicking in $9,000 toward repairs.
“I never expected it to take a full year, and for me to have to reduce the price by that much,” she said.
After briefly dipping below 6% in February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage surged as high as 7.4% this month, its highest level in nearly three years. The upward march in rates has stifled U.S. home sales.
With many sellers lowering their asking price, the national median home listing price declined in September from a year earlier for the 11th month in a row, dropping 1.2% to $419,250, according to Realtor.com. All told, about 21% of listings in September had their initial price lowered, a four-year high.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.