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While price cuts were all the rage last year, homeowners entering peak selling season this spring are shifting strategy.
They are opting for more realistic initial pricing rather than relying on subsequent discounts to boost buyer interest.
Nationally, March saw 16.2% of for-sale homes offering price reductions, down 1.2 percentage points from a year ago, according to the latest Realtor.com® monthly housing market trends report.
Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel explains that while 2025 was defined by a glut of listings with price reductions, averaging roughly 20% from June through October, housing data from the first three months of the new year suggests a reversal of that trend.
“More sellers price down at list rather than cutting after seeing their home sit for longer than anticipated,” notes the economist.
Susan Thayer, broker and Denver Metro Association of Realtors Market Trends Committee member, confirms that a growing number of sellers are listening to the data and adjusting accordingly.
“Homes that are priced well at the beginning of a listing, updated nicely, well cared for, staged properly, and photographed professionally draw more attention,” Thayer tells Realtor.com. “Sellers are starting to understand this as Realtors® have been presenting these facts for quite some time now.”
Like virtually all other aspects of the housing market, price cuts reflect regional differences, remaining less common in the low-supply, high-demand Northeast (9.1% of listings) and Midwest (12.4%), and more widespread in the inventory-rich South (18.4%) and West (17.3%).
Notably, however, all four regions saw the share of listings with price decreases shrink on an annual basis, with the South seeing the steepest drop (-1.9%) year over year, followed by the West (-0.7%), Midwest (-0.2%), and Northeast (-0.1%).
Zooming further in at the metro level reveals sellers’ evolving approach to pricing as they navigate what is shaping up to be a challenging spring market weighed down by the ongoing conflict in Iran, rising mortgage rates, and the Federal Reserve’s “wait-and-see” approach to future interest rate cuts.
In March, Jacksonville, FL, stood out for registering the biggest year-over-year drop in the share of price-reduced listings, at 5.7 percentage points, down to 22%.
“That tells us Jacksonville is looking very buyer-friendly right now and, importantly, sellers are starting to take note,” says Krimmel. “In particular, they are listing lower initially rather than listing higher and then cutting later.”
Miami came in a close second, with its price-reduced listings shrinking 5 percentage points compared to last year, down to 16.3%.
However, Ana Bozovic, a Miami-based real estate agent and founder of Analytics Miami and Miami Deal Sheet, reminds Realtor.com that it’s important to keep in mind that Miami’s housing market is far from monolithic.
“Sellers in Miami are adjusting by becoming much more targeted and strategic in how they price, recognizing that this is no longer one market but a highly segmented one,” she says. “Performance varies significantly depending on the type of product, particularly between newer properties in prime locations and older inventory.”
For sellers, the key shift is that their expectations are becoming more grounded in the specific segment they’re in.
Overall, however, Bozovic says that price cuts are falling out of favor in part because of buyer psychology.
“Properties that sit on the market and go through multiple price cuts can develop a sense of staleness,” says the Miami expert. “Today’s buyers are not only aware of that, they are actively tracking it in real time. When a listing lingers or undergoes reductions, buyers begin to question the asset itself, even when the issue is simply initial pricing.”
As a result, Bozovic says there is a growing recognition that pricing in line with market demand from the outset is the best policy in a market where buyers are data-driven and well-informed.
In the West, Denver experienced the third-biggest drop in discounted listings, down 3.8 percentage points from March 2025, settling at 20.6%.
Thayer explains that pricing realistically from the start has clear logistical advantages, which sellers are now learning to recognize.
“When a home hits the market, it gets an automatic ‘new listing’ push. Buyers who have been waiting for a particular price range or type of home see it right away, agents get alerts, and portals surface it as fresh inventory,” she explains.
“That creates a short, high-leverage window where the most eyes and the most serious buyers are focused on your listing at the same time. Once this time period passes, usually after the first few days, that attention drops off pretty sharply. So a price cut later on will usually not have the same effect as the first initial listing push does.”
According to the Denver broker, a seller who lists their home at a price that is not competitive risks wasting the biggest attention window.
“A large share of homes go under contract early, and the pace slows as time passes,” says Thayer. “As this time on the market increases, sellers tend to give up more in price and terms. We have statistics to prove that listings that require price reductions tend to take longer to sell, and sell under weaker terms.”
Well-supplied Orlando, FL, and Phoenix rounded out the top five, with their price-reduced shares annually decreasing by 3.6 and 3 percentage points, respectively.
Despite the sizeable dip, however, Phoenix stands out for having the most discounted listings across the 50 largest U.S. metros, at nearly 30% of the metro’s inventory.
Spring housing market turns buyer-friendly
While the persistent economic uncertainty is casting a pall over the spring season, Krimmel says key metrics indicate that the market remains resilient, even though the previously anticipated major rebound is now looking less likely.
For buyers, the market conditions are looking up, with the national median listing price edging down 2.2% year over year, to $415,450 in March.
Meanwhile, the typical U.S. home was sold in 57 days last month, four days longer than a year ago, reflecting a slower market pace—and offering buyers more time to weigh their options and make their move.
March marked the 29th consecutive month of climbing active listings, although the growth rate has slowed down, with inventory expanding by 8.1% from a year ago.
New listings—a measure of sellers putting their homes on the market—ticked up just 0.7% year over year nationally, but Krimmel points out that this figure masks a regional divergence: The South and Midwest recorded modest gains of roughly 2%, while the Northeast and Midwest both experienced losses of over 1%.
Krimmel says the waning popularity of price reductions is another major trend to watch for a few reasons.
“First, lower prices at list rather than through a drawn-out series of price reductions means more affordability for more buyers,” he says. “Second, it will also help buyers and sellers come together more quickly.”
Last year, buyers and sellers were far apart on list prices and ability to pay, resulting in frustrations on both sides, record delistings, and the fewest existing-home sales in 30 years.
“If sellers are able to meet buyers where they are this year, especially in higher inventory Southern and Mountain Western markets like Jacksonville, Miami, and Denver, we are likely to see both affordability and the pace of sales improve,” adds the economist.
English (US)