Published September 26, 2026 in Market Update

Nearly 1 in 3 Homes for Sale Already Cut the Price

Most sellers list high on purpose. The thinking goes: price it high, you can always come down. I pulled every listing active as of March 2026, and here is what happened. Nearly 1 in 3 homes for sale has already come down.

Pricing it high is not a strategy. It is a starting point for giving money back.

There are 89 homes for sale right now. Twenty-nine of them have already dropped their price. That is 32.6% of everything on the market. These are not homes that just listed. They came in at one number, waited, and came down.

The typical cut is $25,000. That is 5.6% of what those sellers first asked. For a family buying, $25,000 is a meaningful number. For a seller, it is money they already decided to give up.

And that is the typical home. One seller on Kings Cavalier cut $2,100,000. That is not a rounding error. That is a seller who started at a number the market would not pay, then had to move a very long way.

The sellers who priced right the first time are not the ones giving back $3,442,049. That total belongs entirely to the homes that started too high.

What the pace of sales tells you about where prices need to land

At the recent pace of sales, it would take 0.9 months to sell every home currently for sale. That is less than one month of supply. On paper, that sounds like a strong seller's market. But nearly 1 in 3 homes has still had to cut its price.

That combination tells you something important. Buyers are active. They are not frozen. They are just skipping the homes that are priced over what they will pay. Low supply does not protect a seller who starts too high. It just means the right-priced homes sell and the wrong-priced ones sit.

Mortgage rates are not helping buyers stretch. The 30-year fixed rate averaged 7.03% as of September 24, 2026, up from 6.95% the week before and up from 6.30% a year ago, according to Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey. At 7.03%, buyers are doing the math carefully. A price that felt possible at 6.30% does not feel the same today. Sellers who price as if rates have not moved are the ones cutting later.

What this means for you, whether you are selling or buying right now

If you are selling, the 32.6% figure is a warning and an opportunity at the same time. The sellers who priced correctly are not in that group. They are the ones who sold. If you price your home at what the market will actually pay, you are competing against 29 homes that are already signaling weakness by cutting. A clean, well-priced listing stands out in that crowd.

If you are buying, those 29 homes with cuts are worth a closer look, but do not assume a cut means a deal. A home that already dropped its price by the typical $25,000 may still be priced over what the market will pay. The cut is only useful if the new price is actually right. NAR data shows existing home sales nationally fell 2.0% in August 2026, following a 1.7% drop the month before. Sellers in a slowing national market who have already cut once may have room to move again. Ask the question.