Buying a home this spring? Sellers are starting to cut prices, report says

2025 U.S. real estate predictions

Zillow predicted a more active market with additional inventory for 2025, giving buyers more room to negotiate. However, homebuyers should expect some turbulence with fluctuating mortgage rates, even as more homes become available. Alana Mann, President of The Statesman Group of Companies, joined LiveNOW from FOX to discuss.

The Brief

• In February 2025, price reductions grew to 16.8%, up from 14.6% last year.
• Seller activity increased, with newly listed homes rising 4.2%, marking the highest February activity since 2021, despite elevated mortgage rates.
• Cities like Denver, Charlotte, and Tucson saw significant price reductions.

Realtor.com looked at housing data as of February 2025 for the 50 largest U.S. markets, which included the active inventory of existing single-family homes and condos. 

Price reductions on homes grow to 16.8%

Published in their February Monthly Housing Report, the real estate company found that the share of homes with price reductions grew to 16.8%, up from 14.6% last February.

Sellers increased their activity in February, as newly listed homes rose 4.2% above last year's levels, marking the highest February activity since 2021.

What they're saying:

"While rates remain elevated, we are beginning to see green shoots in the market as sellers grow tired of waiting for significant changes in interest and mortgage rates," said Danielle Hale, a chief economist at Realtor.com. "If these trends continue for the next few months, we could see a market that is entering into more balanced terrain, with rising inventory and a potential future slowdown in price growth. While the market does not look like it did before the pandemic, we are moving away from the ultra-high demand, low inventory period we saw in 2021 and 2022."

In February, the data also found that the median home listing price dipped below last year's level, to $412,000.

A real estate for sale sign offers a reduced price October 30, 2007 in Ramona, California. (Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Despite this, sellers still listed their homes at greater rates than last year, with newly listed homes increasing 4.2% year over year. More smaller homes were listed this year, which decreased the median list price relative to last year.

Denver sees price reductions increase 8%

In the Denver metro area, price reductions increased by 8% compared to last February, placing it first on the list of metros with the largest increases in price reductions. 

RELATED: Almost 40% of Americans receive financial help from family to buy a house: Survey

This was followed by Charlotte, North Carolina; Tucson, Arizona; Jacksonville, Florida and Las Vegas.

Metros with largest increase in price reductions

Denver, CO: 8%

Charlotte, NC: 6.4%

Tucson, AZ: 6.3%

Jacksonville, FL: 5.8%

Las Vegas, NV: 5.7%

Phoenix, AZ: 5.2%

Atlanta, GA: 5.1%

Riverside, CA: 4%

Seattle, WA: 3.9%

Orlando, FL: 3.6%

Portland, OR: 3.5%

Raleigh, NC: 3.5%

San Antonio, TX: 3.5%

Cincinnati, OH: 3.1%

Sacramento, CA: 3%

Grand Rapids, MI: 2.9%

Los Angeles, CA: 2.9%

Dallas, TX: 2.8%

Columbus, OH: 2.6%

Louisville, KY: 2.6%

See the full report here.



Homes stay on market longer than 2024

The report found homes are staying on the market longer than last year, and February 2025 was the 11th month in a row where homes spent more time on the market compared to the previous year.

Despite this, homes in February spent an average of 66 days on the market, 11 fewer days than pre-pandemic numbers between 2017 and 2019. 

Regionally, the South and Midwest saw the biggest gains in time on market this month, averaging an additional seven and eight days on market, respectively.

Why you should care:

Federal workforce reductions could have ripple effects on housing markets with a high concentration of government employees, and the degree of the impact is likely to depend on the health of the private sector in these markets and its ability to provide new opportunities.

For now, housing conditions in these areas are not notably different from other markets. Prior research from Realtor.com suggests that the typical home seller takes at least two weeks, and often longer, to prepare a home for sale, so any real impact is likely ahead.

The Source

The information for this story was provided by Realtor.com housing data as of February 2025. Listings included the active inventory of existing single-family homes and condos/townhomes/row homes/co-ops for the given level of geography on Realtor.com. New construction was excluded unless listed via an MLS that provided listing data to Realtor.com. This story was reported from Los Angeles.