Despite recent fluctuations over the past few weeks, lower interest rates attracted more buyers and sellers to the housing market in September. According to real estate marketing platform Realtor.com, the number of homes for sale rose by 34% compared with last year, with unsold homes up 22.9% and new listings growing 11.9%. This influx of options has pressured sellers to lower prices to remain competitive. Price reductions have become more common in most regions of the U.S., including the Northeast, West, and Midwest, while the South was the only region to see a slight decline in price cuts.
“The percentage of homes with price reductions increased from 17.7% in September of last year to 18.6% this year,” says Realtor.com senior economist Ralph McLaughlin in his recent analysis. “What’s more, the overall share of inventory with price cuts is 1.0 percentage points higher than the shares seen between September 2017 to September 2019.”