More Home Sellers Are Cutting Prices — What It Means for You
About 1 in 5 U.S. homes for sale had a price cut in September 2026. That 20.8% share was the highest for any month since October 2022. Realtor.com reported the number in its September 2026 Monthly Housing Trends Report, out Sept. 30, calling it a four-year high in a month when home-loan rates were above 7%.
September was up 0.9 percentage points from last September — and up 0.5 points from August. Realtor.com said more homes for sale were part of the reason. With more sellers competing as buyer demand cooled after summer, more sellers cut prices to keep buyers coming to see their homes.
In August, 20.4% of listings took a cut, up 0.4 points from July and flat with a year earlier. That flat yearly reading was the first time in 2026 the share matched last year instead of running higher or lower. In July, 20% of listings had a cut, typical asking prices were down 2.4% from a year earlier, and homes sold one day faster than in July 2025. The supply of homes had been growing for months, with January up 10% from a year earlier. Realtor.com
Realtor.com named Sept. 27-Oct. 3 the best time to buy a home in 2026, when listings, price cuts and competition usually line up best for buyers. It estimated that week runs at about a 23% cut rate on a monthly basis, so September's 20.8% was below that peak-week pace but high for a monthly average.
In Tampa, FL, homes sold for 1.82% below asking on average in September, or a 98% sale-to-list ratio. Think of it like store markdowns versus the register: the national 20.8% tracks markdowns on price tags before a deal, while the Tampa 1.82% shows the final deal, after last-minute talks and seller help with closing costs.
A separate early-year count came from Redfin, which reported a record 34% of sellers cut their price in February 2026, by $41,000 on average, or 7.3%. That February group was mostly leftover winter homes repriced for spring, so it cannot be directly compared with Realtor.com's September share. Redfin
The broader context here is sellers are choosing to cut the price instead of waiting longer for a buyer. With more homes for sale and July sales moving a day faster, sellers lowered the asking price to get a deal done. For lenders and investors, that clears homes faster. It keeps sales moving at the cost of the seller's starting price.
Looking at what this means for prices ahead, the 0.9-point yearly jump in September after August's flat yearly reading bears watching. It suggests sellers left summer with more unsold homes than they planned for in spring. The Tampa closing discount is still small, under 200 basis points, which just means under 2%. For asking-price measures, how many sellers cut matters more than how much. The wider cuts come first. Deeper cuts follow only if sales slow and months of supply, or the stock of unsold homes counted in months, keeps growing into the fourth quarter.
