In a Market Correction, Sellers Face a Dilemma: Lower Prices or Wait for Buyers to Bite

Selling a home during the mid-pandemic buying frenzy meant capitalizing on toe-to-toe competition and record home price appreciation, but as the housing market cools and would-be buyers retreat, sellers are struggling to offload their homes. The median national list price fell from an all-time high of $449,000 in June to $417,000 in November, while the share of listings with price reductions grew from 9.4% in November 2021 to 19.6% in November 2022.

Still, a number of home sellers aren’t budging, and as a result, homes with high price tags are sitting on the market for months at a time, Realtor.com reports.

All across the country, real estate agents are having difficult conversations with home sellers who can’t quite accept that they won’t get the same price a neighbor did several months earlier.

“It is really hard for sellers to adjust to this market, and I have every sympathy for that,” says Joan Rogers, with Windermere Realty Trust based in Portland, OR. “Homeowners are basing their expectations on past information that’s still out there. In the housing market, the past is still with us in a way that is psychologically and emotionally confusing.”

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