By Mary Prenon
As the nation’s housing inventory climbed for the 23rd month in a row, nearly 20 percent of sellers reduced the listing prices on their homes in September.
Realtor.com’s September Monthly Housing Trends report, issued on Oct. 2, indicated that sellers of homes in the lower- and middle-price ranges were the most likely to adjust prices downward, while luxury home prices remained mostly untouched.
“September’s trends show a housing market increasingly tilting in buyers’ favor, with a rising inventory of homes for sale, longer days on market, and more competitive pricing,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, said in a video update.
As a result, noted Hale, the fall market may promise to be much more buyer-friendly than in recent years.
Homes priced between $350,000 and $500,000 saw the largest share of price cuts, at 21.6 percent, compared with 13.3 percent of listings priced above $1 million.
On a regional basis, the South had the highest share of listings with price reductions at 21.1 percent, followed by the West at 20.9 percent, and the Midwest at 19.2 percent. In contrast, the Northeast had the fewest price reductions, at just 14 percent of listings.
Those metropolises with the highest share of price drops in September included Denver, Colorado, at 30.7 percent of listings; Portland, Oregon, at 30.2 percent; and Indianapolis, Indiana, at 29.7 percent.
September proved to be a good month for homebuyers as active inventory jumped by 17 percent nationwide from the same month in 2024. For the fifth consecutive month, the market offered more than 1 million homes for sale throughout the country. Still, the report said, nationwide inventory remained nearly 14 percent below normal levels last experienced from 2017 to 2019.
All four regions saw an inventory increase, with the West expanding by 21.1 percent year over year, and the South by 17.9 percent. Midwest inventory grew by 13.2 percent and the Northeast by 10.1 percent.
Realtor.com’s analysis also indicated that 10 of the 50 largest U.S. markets now have inventories of at least 25 percent above pre-pandemic levels, and all are located in the South or West regions.
The strongest inventory gains were in Denver, Colorado, at 59.6 percent; and San Antonio and Austin, Texas, at 49.6 percent and 46.9 percent, respectively. Among those with the lowest inventory gains were Hartford, Connecticut; Chicago, Illinois; and Providence, Rhode Island.
Despite the growth of available homes on the market, September’s newly listed homes saw a slight decline of 1.2 percent from September 2024, a sharp contrast with a 7.3 percent growth in August.
The Midwest led the nation in new listings with a 2.4 percent uptick, followed by the Northeast at 1.3 percent. New listings in both the South and West declined by 3.5 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.
According to Realtor.com, the national median price held at $425,000 in September—a 1.2 percent increase from August.
“While prices have flattened in the short term, long-term growth continues to affect affordability,” the report states. “Since August 2019, the typical list price has jumped 36 percent, and price-per-square foot has risen 50.6 percent, highlighting persistent cost pressures for buyers.”
Homes typically spent a week longer on the market in September than in the same period in 2024. The median was 62 days, and all four regions experienced longer selling times.
Two California metropolitan areas still command some of America’s highest prices: the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, metro with a September median price of $1.36 million for a single-family home, and $1.09 million for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro.
Only a few of the country’s 50 top metropolitan areas offered median prices under $300,000 in September: St. Louis, Missouri, and Birmingham, Alabama, at $299,900; Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan, at $275,00; Cleveland, Ohio, at $259,900; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at $254,950.
