When to Lower the Price of Your House in Today’s Market

Key takeaways

• A lack of showings, declining online engagement, and no serious offers can signal that your home is overpriced.
• About 20.2% of active listings nationwide have reduced their asking price.
• Most effective price cuts are meaningful enough to attract new buyers, often around 2% to 5%.
• In some cases, seller concessions may be more effective than lowering the price.

In today’s housing market, buyers have more options and more negotiating power than they did just a few years ago. Roughly 20.2% of active listings nationwide have reduced their asking price, and many homes are taking longer to sell than they were a few years ago. If your home isn’t attracting showings or offers, a price adjustment may help reignite interest and get your sale back on track.

Pricing strategy in today’s market

The days of the pandemic housing boom – where sellers could list a home at an aggressive premium and watch multiple sight-unseen offers materialize over a single weekend – are gone. Today’s real estate ecosystem requires flexibility. Nationally, roughly 20.2% of all active listings feature a price cut.

While that’s down slightly from 21.0% a year ago, price reductions remain much more common than they were before the pandemic. Sellers have become more realistic about pricing from the start, helping reduce the need for later adjustments. Still, buyers generally have more options and negotiating power than they did just a few years ago, making accurate pricing more important than ever.

“Earlier this year, homes were lingering on the market and price drops were fairly common as sellers worked to attract buyers. But sellers have become more in tune with current market conditions and are pricing accurately from the start to minimize risk.” – Justin Gomez, Redfin Premier Agent

How to avoid overpricing your home before listing 

• Price for the next 30 days, not the last 3 years: Avoid looking at what your neighbor’s house sold for during the peak of the pandemic boom. Instead, have your agent pull local neighborhood comparables (comps) from the last 30 to 60 days to see what active buyers are actually paying right now.

• Price below psychological brackets: Most buyers set hard search filters on real estate apps (e.g., capping their search at $400,000). If you price your home at $405,000, you completely hide your listing from everyone filtering up to $400,000. Pricing at $399,000 instantly captures a massive pool of buyers.

• Account for your local inventory: Real estate is hyper-local. If you live in a cooling Sun Belt metro like San Antonio or Phoenix, more than half of all sellers are cutting prices because inventory is high. If you are in a highly competitive market like San Francisco, inventory is tight, meaning you have more leverage to stick to your number.

• Test the waters early: Tools like Redfin Early Access allow sellers to market their home as a coming-soon listing before it officially hits the market. Early feedback from buyers and agents can help you gauge interest, refine your pricing strategy, and potentially avoid a price cut later.

How long should you wait before lowering your asking price?

Timing a price reduction is an exercise in data over emotion. If you cut the price too quickly, buyers might assume something is structurally wrong with the house. If you wait too long, your home becomes a “stale listing,” losing its competitive edge.

The right timeline depends on your market and your home’s level of buyer interest. Pay close attention to the following signs during the first few weeks after listing.

Signs it’s time to lower your asking price 

Buyers are looking but not making offers

If your listing is receiving views, saves, and showings but no serious offers, buyers may like the home but feel the asking price is too high.

Feedback consistently mentions price

Pay attention to feedback from buyers and agents. If multiple people mention that the home feels overpriced or compare it unfavorably to lower-priced listings nearby, the market may be signaling that an adjustment is needed.

Competing homes are priced lower

If similar homes in your neighborhood are entering the market at lower prices or selling faster, buyers are likely choosing those properties first.

Offers are significantly below asking

Low offers can be frustrating, but they often provide useful information. If multiple buyers are coming in well below your asking price, it may indicate that the market values the home differently than you do.

The home appraises below asking price

If an appraisal comes in below your list price, buyers using financing may struggle to move forward without renegotiation.

If your listing is showing several of these signs within the first two to three weeks, it may be time to reconsider your pricing strategy. Waiting too long can increase your days on market and make buyers wonder why the home hasn’t sold.

How much should you lower the price?

When making a price reduction, avoid the temptation to dip your toe in the water. Making a sequence of tiny, nominal price drops (like cutting $2,000 on a $500,000 home) often go unnoticed by buyers. They may not trigger new interest, fail to shift your home into a new search bracket, or meaningfully change buyers’ perception of value.

To make an impact, consider  a price reduction of 2% to 5%:

• For a $400,000 home: A 4% drop translates to a $16,000 reduction. This moves your home down to $384,000, immediately capturing buyers who capped their home search filters at $390,000 or $385,000.
• National baseline: Across the United States, sellers who dropped their asking price cut it by an average of 4.0%.

A single, meaningful price reduction is often more effective than a series of small cuts spread out over several weeks.

Should you lower the price or offer concessions?

Sometimes, lowering the price isn’t the best solution. If buyer hesitation is driven by macroeconomic factors like high mortgage rates rather than the home’s intrinsic value, seller concessions may be a more effective way to attract offers.

With seller concessions near record highs in many markets, buyers increasingly expect flexibility during negotiations. 

Option A: The direct price drop

Best For: Boosting listing visibility. Real estate portals will re-alert every buyer who previously saved the home, noting the lower price. It also drops your home into lower pricing filters.

Option B: Seller concessions 

Best for: Helping buyers manage upfront costs or affordability concerns. Instead of reducing the home’s price by $15,000, you could offer a $15,000 credit that the buyer can use toward closing costs, repairs, prepaid expenses, or other eligible homebuying costs.

In some cases, seller concessions can be more attractive than a price reduction because they lower the buyer’s out-of-pocket expenses while allowing you to maintain your asking price. One common example is a mortgage-rate buydown, which can help reduce a buyer’s monthly payment during the early years of the loan.

Avoid chasing the market

The ultimate risk of waiting too long to lower your price is that the market may move ahead without you. In areas where inventory is growing, setting your price too high means you’re always one step behind what buyers are willing to pay. By proactively aligning your home’s price with current market conditions and comparable sales, you can maintain momentum, attract stronger offers, and improve your chances of selling more quickly. 

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