Sellers Are Losing Their Upper Ground in Migration Hotspots

Surging mortgage rates are causing a sharp drop in buyer demand and forcing those still making home purchases to reduce their budgets. In response, sellers are lowering their asking prices in regional markets seeing record-breaking year-over-year price growth, Redfin reports. Boise, ID, saw home prices rise 62% in the last two years, causing 41% of sellers to drop their asking prices in April, the largest share among the 108 metros analyzed by Redfin.

Sellers have benefited greatly from a supercharged housing market for the last several years, but as more buyers are priced out of home purchases in popular migration destinations, their victory lap may be coming to a close.

“Conversations with prospective sellers are longer and more emotional now than they were just a few months ago,” said Boise, ID, Redfin real estate agent Shauna Pendleton. “If your home has been listed for several days with little or no interest from buyers, it’s time to consider dropping the price. If you do have to drop the price, you are far better off doing one large price drop instead of a series of smaller price drops, because a larger number of drops is often interpreted as desperation and encourages buyers to wait even longer or make a lower offer.”

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