Home sellers not only lower their price but also help the buyer close a deal.

LOS ANGELES — Not long ago, an American homeowner could reasonably bet that they could sell their home relatively quickly and for more than the asking price. This is unlikely to be a winning bet now.

Across the country, a stagnant real estate market leaves many sellers in limbo, unable to move for a new job, purchase their next home to accommodate a growing family, or follow through on other important life decisions that require selling their home.

Sellers who have the option to remove their listing from the marketplace generally do so. Those who don’t are under increased pressure to lower their asking price and invest thousands of dollars in buyer’s fees, real estate agents say.

The trend marks a sharp turnaround from earlier this decade, when sellers often received prices well above their asking price, with homebuyers benefitting from ultra-low mortgage rates fueling a buying frenzy that sent home prices skyrocketing.

Today, the market is gridlocked by rising mortgage rates, the cumulative effect of years of rising house prices and an economic outlook clouded by high inflation. These factors put homeownership out of reach for many buyers, while others delay purchasing and hope for more favorable terms, perhaps in the spring.

Sellers easily outnumber buyers and are stuck between difficult choices: be more aggressive with price cuts and concessions to woo buyers, or hold out longer, even if it means delaying major life projects.

“The momentum has shifted more toward what we call buyers’ markets rather than sellers’ markets,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial. “(That) means you might have to reduce your price, you might give a concession to sell your home, it might have to stay on the market longer.”

More than a year after first listing home, empty nester can move

With her three children no longer living at home, Liz Suder decided to sell her four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home in Murphy, Texas, about 20 miles from Dallas, and buy a smaller place.

“I was waiting to sell the house before I started looking,” Suder, 56, said. “I didn’t want to have two mortgages.”

Suder ended up putting his life on hold for more than a year. The financial manager, who has owned the home for 21 years, initially put the house on the market in April 2025 for $750,000. Six months later, despite several price cuts, the house still hadn’t sold and she took it off the market.

Suder relisted the house in February for $725,000 ahead of the spring home-buying season. But only recently did a buyer agree to buy it for $650,000. Suder sweetened the deal by putting up $9,000 for the repairs.

“I didn’t expect it would take a full year and I would have to reduce the price by that much,” she said.

Life is on hold, but we are staying the course for a significant price drop

Rick Ganga must find a buyer for his home in the coastal town of Blaine, Washington, before he can begin the next chapter of his life.

Ganga goes through a divorce which requires selling the house. He’s had several showings of the three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home since it went on the market June 1 for $825,000. Dropping the price to just under $800,000 didn’t help.

“There have been no offers, hardly any traffic,” Ganga, 58, said.

Ganga said some sellers in his neighborhood have lowered their asking price by $100,000 or more, but because he’s only owned the house since 2022, he hasn’t built up enough equity to be able to lower the price further.

“It’s not something I’m going to consider,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Until the house is sold, the operations manager has no choice but to shelve his plans to move his business to another state.

“I honestly believe this will probably stay in effect until the spring or summer of next year,” he said.

Sellers Lose Their Influence as Real Estate Market Stagnates

After briefly falling below 6% in February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 7.4% this month, its highest level in almost three years. The rise in rates has housing sales stifled in the United States.

While many sellers lowered their asking prices, the national median listing price of homes declined in September from a year earlier for the 11th straight month, falling 1.2% to $419,250, according to Realtor.com. In total, about 21% of listings in September saw their initial price drop, a four-year high.

It’s not uncommon for home buyers to ask for – and receive – money from sellers to cover their closing costs. Higher mortgage rates also give buyers leverage to pressure sellers for money to lower their rate for a few years or for the life of the loan, thereby reducing their overall borrowing costs.

“It’s kind of like an indicator of where the market is right now, with buyers gaining leverage at the expense of sellers, and sellers doing more now to meet buyers halfway,” said Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com.

That’s good news for homebuyers, but it may not be enough to overcome the affordability barriers that keep many potential buyers out of the market.

Consider that last month, there were about 63% more sellers than buyers in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, according to a Redfin analysis. And the number of buyers – around 929,000 – represented the lowest number on record since 2013, while the number of sellers reached its highest level since 2020.

Sluggish real estate market thwarts plans to buy a larger house

This significant imbalance between buyers and sellers means Ethan Butner may have to wait longer to sell his home in Troutdale, Oregon, about 16 miles east of Portland.

Butner, a service manager, has already accepted an offer on a new, more spacious home for him and his family near Portland. He first needs to find a buyer for his three-and-a-half-bathroom home so he can invest the profits into the new house.

So far, things are not going well. The house has been on the market for more than two months for $480,000. Butner reduced his asking price by $30,000, but that generated only one offer, which fell through.

Butner recently installed a new water heater and dishwasher, and replaced the flooring in hopes of making the property more attractive.

“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for me, my family, especially my fiancée,” Butner, 36, said. “We had this vision of being in our own house and all the kids having their own room and all the good things that come with it. We definitely feel stuck right now.