Record Savings for Homebuyers as Price Cuts Sweep the Housing Market

Housing Market Shifts as More Sellers Slash Asking Prices

The U.S. housing market is showing clear signs of a reset as more sellers cut their prices to attract buyers. A new report finds that more than a quarter of active listings are now offering markdowns, giving home shoppers some of the best opportunities they’ve seen in years.

One in Four Listings Comes With a Price Cut

According to Zillow, 26.9% of for-sale homes across the country had a price reduction in October. The typical listing saw a total of $25,000 in cumulative price cuts, matching the largest average discounts Zillow has ever recorded.

While the size of any single price cut remains similar to recent years — around $10,000 — sellers are tweaking their prices more often as homes take longer to sell.

Homeowners Still Have Room to Discount

Most sellers are not exactly taking a loss. After years of surging home values, many owners are sitting on significant equity, which gives them breathing room to lower prices and still come out ahead.

“Most homeowners have seen their home values soar over the past several years, which gives them the flexibility for a price cut or two while still walking away with a profit,” said Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow.

Ng added that these markdowns are helping align asking prices with what buyers can actually afford — and that’s helping to fuel what she called the most active housing market in about three years. “Patient buyers are reaping the rewards as the market continues to rebalance,” she said.

Biggest Dollar Discounts in the Priciest Markets

The deepest dollar cuts are showing up in some of the nation’s most expensive metro areas.

In San Jose, sellers trimmed a median of $70,900 off their original asking price — the largest cumulative discount among the major markets surveyed.

Several other high-cost California markets also saw sizable reductions:

• Los Angeles: median cumulative cut of $61,000

• San Francisco: $59,001

• San Diego: $50,000

On the East Coast, New York City sellers also sliced a median $50,000 from initial list prices.

Where Sellers Aren’t Cutting as Deep

Not every market is seeing massive reductions. In some cities, sellers have less room — or less need — to mark down their homes.

In October, the smallest median cumulative price cuts were:

• Oklahoma City: $15,000

• Louisville: $15,000

• St. Louis: $15,100

• Indianapolis: $16,000

• Detroit: $17,100

Except for Oklahoma City, these metros are generally seeing homes sell faster than the national average, and listings tend to be newer — signs that demand is still strong and sellers don’t have to offer steep discounts to get a deal done.

Where Relative Discounts Pack the Biggest Punch

In some areas with more modest home prices, the markdowns may be smaller in dollar terms but larger when measured against the typical home value.

In Pittsburgh, the typical $20,000 price cut equals roughly 9% of the metro’s median home value — the biggest relative discount among the major markets in Zillow’s report.

New Orleans  also delivered about a 9% relative markdown, while buyers in several Texas metros enjoyed similarly large percentage cuts off list price:

• Austin: about 8.4%

• Houston: about 8.2%

• San Antonio: about 7.9%

Together, these trends point to a market that is slowly rebalancing. Sellers are losing some of the extreme leverage they held during the pandemic boom, and buyers who can afford to wait — and watch — are now finding more room to negotiate.