--- title: 'Housing Market Retreat: More Homes Are Selling for Below Asking Price' description: The average home in the U.S. is now selling for below list price. It's the first time homes are selling below asking price since early 2021. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true published: '2022-09-06T17:53:32.000Z' modified: '2024-05-08T05:52:29.000Z' section: Housing tags: - home prices - News word_count: 445 canonical: https://money.com/homes-selling-below-asking-price/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo collage of a family of four standing in-front of a house with a sold sign and multiple numbers in the background](https://img.money.com/2022/09/News-Average-Home-Price-Below-Price.jpg?crop=0px%2C335px%2C3814px%2C2146px&quality=85) For the first time in nearly 18 months, the average U.S. home is selling for less than its list price. That’s according to recent [data](https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-homes-sell-below-asking-price/) from real estate brokerage Redfin, which uses a metric called the sale-to-list price ratio to track the relationship between a home’s listing price and its final sale price. The average sale-to-list-price ratio dropped to 99.8% over the four weeks ending on August 28 after consistently hovering above 100% since March 2021. The change is the latest sign that the housing market, which saw [prices balloon](https://money.com/reason-high-home-prices-remote-work/) over the last two years amid a pandemic-induced boom in demand, is [continuing to cool](https://money.com/housing-market-wildly-different/). Redfin data also shows sellers are continuing to [cut prices](https://money.com/homes-for-sale-price-cuts/), and that bidding wars have begun to fade away. Asking prices for homes are still significantly higher than they were a year ago, but they've fallen since their peak earlier this summer. Sales are slowing down, too, and the rapid appreciation in home values is losing steam. Data released last month by the real estate website Zillow showed that [home values fell](https://money.com/home-values-fell-zillow-report/) in the month of July for the first time in a decade. All this indicates that the market is beginning to normalize as sellers adjust their expectations after the last two years. Realtor.com Senior Economist George Ratiu pointed out in a [recent analysis](https://www.realtor.com/research/2022-summer-sellers-survey/) that while more and more sellers are resorting to price cuts and a growing share is accepting buyer-friendly concessions like home inspections, "real estate market\[s\] continue to favor sellers" rather than buyers. ## Why are home prices leveling off? The culprit for the swift turnaround in the housing market is [mortgage rates](https://money.com/current-mortgage-rates/), which have risen more than two percentage points since the beginning of the year as the Federal Reserve attempts to tamp down on [inflation](https://money.com/grocery-prices-biggest-increase-1979-inflation/). But while higher rates are helping to [push prices down on some consumer goods](https://money.com/prices-falling-meat-flights-computers/), they’re also making it more difficult for many prospective buyers to afford new homes. The typical monthly mortgage payment on a home with the median asking price is now $2,306, according to Redfin, compared to $1,665 a year ago. Prices for many items remain historically high due to the breakneck pace of inflation over the past year. “Homebuyers’ budgets are increasingly stretched thin by rising rates and ongoing inflation,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a statement, “so sellers need to make their homes and their prices attractive to get buyers’ attention during this busy time of year.” 4 Ways the Housing Market Is 'Wildly Different' From Just a Few Months Ago ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/homes-selling-below-asking-price/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Housing Market", "item": "https://money.com/housing-market/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Housing Market Retreat: More Homes Are Selling for Below Asking Price" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/homes-selling-below-asking-price/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/homes-selling-below-asking-price/", "name": "Housing Market Retreat: More Homes Are Selling for Below Asking Price", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-09-06T17:53:32.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/homes-selling-below-asking-price/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/homes-selling-below-asking-price/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-08T05:52:29.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Housing Market Retreat: More Homes Are Selling for Below Asking Price", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/09/News-Average-Home-Price-Below-Price.jpg?crop=0px%2C335px%2C3814px%2C2146px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-Average-Home-Price-Below-Price" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. 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