Are sellers giving homebuyers record price cuts. Impact on sales?

Snitz takes a data dive. According to Claude Ai:

Key Findings on Home Sales and Price Trends

Sales Trend: Home sales have shown a modest increase recently, rising 1.2% in October 2025 to 4.1 million units National Association of REALTORS, up from 3.96 million in November 2024 (a 3.5% increase over the year). The graph shows sales have been relatively stable in the 3.87-4.19 million range throughout 2024-2025.

Impact of Lower Mortgage Rates:

The recent uptick in sales appears linked to falling mortgage rates. Mortgage rates dropped from around 6.8% in early summer to 6.2-6.3% during September-October TD, which helped stimulate buyer activity. According to NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, home sales increased despite economic challenges because homebuyers took advantage of lower mortgage rates National Association of REALTORS.

Price Dynamics:

Contrary to what you might expect, the median existing-home price actually increased 2.1% year-over-year to $415,200 in October 2025 National Association of REALTORS. However, the overall picture is mixed:

Some sellers are taking multiple price cuts, with typical listings seeing $25,000 in cumulative price reductions in October, matching the largest discounts Zillow has recorded CNBC

In October, 53% of homes saw their valuations decline, the most since 2012 Fortune, with Western and Southern markets most affected

Bottom Line: While mortgage rate decreases have provided some boost to sales volumes (particularly in September-October 2025), the overall market remains constrained by affordability challenges. Sales volumes are still near historic lows, and the rate reductions haven't been dramatic enough to unlock significant pent-up demand.

Study shows homebuyers receiving record discounts due to sellers’ price cuts

By Eric Revell, Fox Business

Published Nov. 28, 2025, 5:23 p.m. ET

A new report finds that homebuyers are receiving some of the steepest price discounts on record as sellers adjust their expectations.

Zillow found that the typical listing in the US had $25,000 in cumulative price cuts in October, which matched the largest discounts the company has ever recorded.

The typical size of an individual price cut is little changed from recent years at around $10,000 – but the report noted that sellers are adjusting their sales prices more frequently with listings taking longer to move. The share of listings with price cuts is 26.9% of all US listings, according to the report.

“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 Zillow senior economist Kara Ng.

“These discounts are bringing more listings in line with buyers’ budgets, and helping fuel the most active housing market in three years,” Ng said. “Patient buyers are reaping the rewards as the market continues to rebalance.”

Zillow noted that the areas with the largest median discounts from the initial listing price were located in some of the most expensive housing markets in the country.

Cuts by sellers in San Jose amounted to a median $70,900 cumulative discount, the largest of all markets.

Other metro areas in California saw sizable median reductions of $61,000 in Los Angeles, $59,001 in San Francisco and $50,000 in San Diego – while New York City also saw a median cumulative price cut of $50,000.

In some metro areas, home sellers haven’t had as much flexibility to reduce prices. The smallest cumulative median price discounts in October were in Oklahoma City ($15,000), Louisville ($15,000), St. Louis ($15,100), Indianapolis ($16,000) and Detroit ($17,100).

Aside from Oklahoma City, those metro areas are seeing homes sell faster than the national average and listings tend to be newer, which indicates there is steady demand and sellers don’t need to make deep price cuts to attract a buyer.

Markets which had less costly homes to begin with tended to have bigger relative discounts for buyers. Pittsburgh had a typical $20,000 markdown with about 9% of the metro’s typical home value, which was the largest relative discount among major markets in Zillow’s report.

New Orleans also had a discount of about 9% relative to the typical home value in the market, while buyers saw similarly sized price cuts in Austin (8.4%), Houston (8.2%) and San Antonio (7.9%).