Realtor.com's October report came out Wednesday, and the national median asking price fell 2.2% from a year ago to $415,000, marking 12 straight months of sellers asking for less than the year before.
Nobody's panicking, though. New listings fell 7.5%, the steepest drop since September 2023, and Realtor.com’s economists called it “more like a seller pause than an exodus.”
The steepest drop: Austin, at $439,650, down 10.2% in a year, with a price cut on 26.2% of listings. (I'm a Texan who watched Austin act like gravity was optional in 2021, so I'd like everyone to know I saw this coming.) Four other big metros fell at least 5%, and one of them is a $1 million market, so see the other four.
The region that didn't get the memo: The Midwest was the only region where asking prices rose, up 0.8% to $317,500. Chicago's median price is up 4.1%, Columbus 1.2%, and Kansas City 0.9%. (Cleveland and Cincinnati didn't move at all, which is the most Ohio thing I've ever heard.)
Where the sticker is a suggestion: Five metros have price cuts on roughly 3 in 10 listings:
- Salt Lake City (31.8%)
- Indianapolis (31.7%)
- Denver (30.9%)
- Portland (30.6%)
- Phoenix (29.5%)
When that many sellers have already blinked once, the list price is more of an opening bid. On Indianapolis's $305,000 median, a 3% seller credit is $9,150 you can put toward buying down your rate, and a listing that's been sitting longer than the national median of 63 days is the one to ask (my rule of thumb, not Realtor.com's)
Scoop.it!
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