More than one in five homes on the market carried a price cut in September, the highest share for the month in eight years, and the supply of homes for sale has now climbed back to within 9.1% of its typical pre-pandemic level β the first time that gap has narrowed to single digits in the current recovery.
The numbers come from Realtor.com’s September housing report, released Sept. 30. On paper they describe a market tilting toward buyers. The report’s own reading of why is less comfortable.
“More homes are available than they were a year ago, and the inventory gap with the pre-pandemic market is closing,” said Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com. “It is arriving as demand cools in response to higher borrowing costs, not because a new wave of sellers is rushing into the market.”
New listings bear that out. Sellers put 394,830 homes on the market in September, down 1.7% from August and 0.7% from a year earlier. The inventory build β 1,161,615 active listings, up 5.4% year over year and the fastest annual gain in six months β is coming from homes that are not selling, not from a rush of new supply.
Sellers are cutting, not quitting
The share of active listings with a price reduction reached 20.8%, up 0.5 percentage points from August and 0.9 points from a year earlier. Realtor.com calls that the highest September reading since 2018.
What is not happening is a wave of sellers pulling homes off the market in frustration. About 5.6% of listings were delisted in September, which the report describes as in line with a year ago and without evidence of a broad delisting spike.
“Price cuts and delistings tell two different parts of the seller story,” Krimmel said. “More owners are acknowledging that today’s buyers need a lower price, but they are still choosing to stay in the market rather than walk away.”
Asking prices are following. The national median list price was $419,250, down 1.2% from August and 1.4% from a year earlier β the 11th consecutive month of annual list-price declines. On a per-square-foot basis, which strips out changes in the mix of homes listed, the median was $223, down 1.7% year over year.
Homes spent a median of 61 days on the market, one day longer than in August but one day fewer than a year earlier.
The demand side is deteriorating faster
The report’s weakest number is on the buying side. The stock of homes under contract fell 4.1% from a year earlier, a second straight monthly decline and, by Realtor.com’s count, the steepest annual drop since March 2025.
The report ties that directly to financing costs: “After rates rose nearly 40 basis points over the prior four weeks and stood over 70 basis points above last year’s level, the stock of homes under contract fell 4.1% from a year ago.”
That rate move has continued. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported Sept. 30 that the average 30-year fixed rate reached 7.30% in the week ending Sept. 25, a sixth consecutive weekly increase and the highest since November 2023, with applications down 6%.
“September’s housing data shows that buyers are gaining leverage, but higher mortgage rates are limiting how much of that opportunity they can use,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Inventory is improving and more sellers are adjusting prices, yet the decline in pending sales makes clear that affordability remains a central constraint as the fall season gets underway.”
Leverage is regional
The national averages hide a wide spread. In the West, 22.8% of listings had a price cut, up 1.8 percentage points from a year ago β the biggest regional increase. The South was close behind at 21.6%, the Midwest at 20.7%, and the Northeast far back at 15.2%.
Inventory recovery is running in the opposite geographic direction. Active listings rose 11.6% year over year in the Northeast and 11.3% in the Midwest, against 6.2% in the West and just 2.6% in the South. Median list prices fell 3.8% in the Northeast and 2.4% in the South, were flat in the Midwest and slipped 0.8% in the West. Midwest price per square foot actually rose 1.7%.
“Buyers are gaining negotiating power, but that does not look the same everywhere,” Krimmel said.
Among the 50 largest metros, the highest price-reduction shares were in Salt Lake City at 33.6%, Denver at 32.1% and Portland, Ore., at 31.6% β roughly a third of listings in each. At the other end, only 10.3% of New York listings had a cut, followed by Hartford, Conn., at 12.6% and Buffalo, N.Y., at 12.9%.
Per-square-foot prices fell hardest in Austin, Texas, down 8.4% year over year, then Tampa, Fla., at -6.0% and San Francisco at -4.3%. Providence, R.I., led the gainers at +8.9%, ahead of Indianapolis at +4.7% and Hartford at +3.6%.
On our reading, the pattern in this monthβs data is geographic as much as anything. The metros handing buyers the most room β Salt Lake City, Denver, Portland, Austin, Tampa β are largely ones that appreciated fastest during the pandemic housing boom. The Northeast, where inventory is rebuilding quickest but sellers are cutting least, remains the hardest place to negotiate.
Realtor.com’s figures cover active listings of existing single-family homes and condos, townhomes, row homes and co-ops, excluding new construction, with metro analysis limited to the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. The data history extends to July 2016.
Earlier this year the same series showed price cuts reaching 20% of listings in July. For more, see our housing market coverage.
