Average Home Now Sells for Less Than Asking Price

For the first time since the housing market picked up after the pandemic, Redfin has reported that the average home has sold for less than its listing price as of August 28 in another sign of a housing market cooldown. 

This information comes by way of a new report published by Redfin, which covers the four-week period prior to August 28. 

According to Redfin, every month since March 2021 has seen an average sale-to-list ration of over 100%; this comes as the share of listings with a price drop has finally begun to plateau. 

Even as prices ease, demand from homebuyers is subdued—purchase application and pending sales have both recently posted large yearly declines—thanks in parts to mortgage rates, which have eclipsed the 5.6% mark, to their highest level since June. Home sellers were also found to be reluctant to enter the market as new listings and total inventory of homes have also posted large declines.

"While the cooldown appears to be tapering off, there are signs that there is more room for the market to ease," said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s Chief Economist. "The post-Labor Day slowdown will likely be a little more intense this year than in previous years when the market was super tight. Expect homes to linger on the market, which may lead to another small uptick in the share of sellers lowering their prices. Homebuyers’ budgets are increasingly stretched thin by rising rates and ongoing inflation, so sellers need to make their homes and their prices attractive to get buyers’ attention during this busy time of year.”

Other leading indicators of homebuying activity include:

• For the week ending August 25, 30-year mortgage rates rose to 5.66%. That’s down from a 2022 high of 5.81% but up from 3.22% at the start of the year. 
• Fewer people searched for “homes for sale” on Google. Searches during the week ending August 27 were down 26% from a year earlier. 
• The seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for home tours and other home-buying services from Redfin agents—was up 15% from the 2022 low in June during the week ending August 28, but was down 16% year over year. 
• Touring activity as of August 28 was down 9% from the start of the year, compared to a 11% increase at the same time last year, according to home tour technology company ShowingTime. 
• Mortgage purchase applications were down 2% week over week, seasonally adjusted, and were down 23% from a year earlier during the week ending August 26. 
• The median home sale price was $370,000, up 6% year over year. Prices have declined 6% from the record high of $393,725 hit during the four-week period ending June 19. A year ago, they rose 0.4% during the same period. 
• Three metro areas saw a year-over-year decline in their median home-sale price: Honolulu, Hawaii, where prices fell 3.6% to $676,875, Oakland, California, where prices fell 3% to $918,500, and San Francisco, where prices were down 3.7% to $1,453,125. 
• The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 9% year over year to $379,194. Asking prices are down 5.8% from the all-time high set during the four-week period ending May 22. Last year during the same period they were down just 0.4%. 
• The monthly mortgage payment on the median asking price home was $2,306 at the current 5.66% mortgage rate, up 39% from $1,665 a year earlier, when mortgage rates were 2.87%. That’s down from the peak of $2,461 reached during the four weeks ending June 12. 
• Pending home sales were down 18% year over year. 
• New listings of homes for sale were down 16% from a year earlier, the largest decline since May 2020. 
• Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 0.9% from the prior four-week period. On a year-over-year basis, they rose 4.2%. 
• 35% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, little changed from the prior four-week period but down from 43% a year earlier. 
• 24% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, little changed from the prior four-week period but down from 30% a year earlier. 
• Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 26 days, up from 21 days a year earlier and the record low of 17 days set in May and early June. 
• 37% of homes sold above list price, down from 50% a year earlier. 
• On average, 7.5% of homes for sale each week had a price drop, a record high but unchanged from the prior four-week period. 
• The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, fell to 99.8% from 101.4% a year earlier. In other words, the average home sold at its asking price. This was the first time since March 2021 the ratio has fallen below 100%, meaning the typical home is now selling for below asking price. 

Click here to view the report in its entirety.