Inman News
Behind the numbers: Why affordability pressure is forcing sellers to slash prices on starter homes — and why luxury listings are largely immune
Price cuts are one of the defining markers of the market at this moment.
In spite of median home prices not reflecting much change, price cuts are currently happening across all price points, both at the national aggregate level and all the way down to local statistics.
However, according to the September 2025 Housing Market Trends Report by the Realtor.com® economics team, homes in the lower price tiers are the ones taking the biggest hit.
Over 20 percent of listings under $350,000 nationwide had a price cut in September, compared to 13.3 percent of listings over $1 million, which saw their price slashed to attract home shoppers.
Even in buyer’s markets, price cuts are least common at the high end.
“Interest rates, high real estate prices propped up by the pandemic, inflation and insurance are all driving price reductions,” says Cara Ameer, a bicoastal agent with Coldwell Banker who is licensed in California and Florida.
In some cases, lower-priced resales are also having to compete with an increase in new construction in their area, where Ameer says, “builders are aggressively buying down interest rates, paying all closing costs and are willing to negotiate to unload these homes from their books, especially by the year’s end.”
The result is that sellers in the lower tiers are feeling squeezed, and many find they must price cut if they wish to remain competitive.
“At the lower price points, sellers are often move-up buyers who need to sell in order to purchase their next home,” says Susie Dempsey, a real estate agent for Corcoran specializing in Manhattan and Hamptons luxury listings. “With mortgage rates keeping affordability tight, they’re under more pressure to adjust if they want to attract buyers quickly.”
On the flip side, luxury home sellers can be more patient since their home’s sale is not a prerequisite for future purchases.
“Luxury sellers tend to be very price-anchored — they can afford to wait and often prefer to pull a listing rather than drastically reduce,” says Dempsey. “In the New York City and Hamptons markets, I’m not seeing price cuts concentrated in the luxury tier the way we might expect in other regions.”
The Northeast only had 14.4 percent of listings institute price cuts in September, compared to the Midwest (19.2 percent), South (21.1 percent) and West (20.9 percent), which all sported much higher price-slashing percentages.
As a further example of this regional divergence, consider that Portland, Oregon — the buyer’s market with the steepest price cuts in September 2025 — mirrors the national trend, with price cuts occurring more frequently at the lower end of the market (34.2 percent).
In contrast, Hartford, Connecticut — a much hotter Northeast housing market — showed little variation in price cuts across the tiers (an overall average of 11 percent), with slightly more occurring for homes priced over $1 million (11.6 percent) than at the lowest price points under $350,000 (10.9 percent).
“Meanwhile, New York and Miami stand out as idiosyncratic outliers,” says Realtor.com® senior economist Jake Krimmel. “Despite high months of supply in these markets, price cuts are rather uncommon, suggesting sellers in these markets are either exceptionally patient or particularly price-anchored.”
In other words, depending on where you are, price cuts may have a major or minor influence on real estate sales.
“The reality is price cuts are happening in higher-priced homes and lower ones — multiple things are true in this market,” says Ameer. “Pricing is all over the place, and right now it is not uncommon to find a property for sale, or look at sold comps, that had multiple price adjustments in order to get an offer.”