Home builders leaned on price reductions to drive sales more than existing-home sellers during the fourth quarter of last year, as pricing trends continue to fluctuate between those sectors of the single-family housing market.
However, a new analysis on the new-home market conducted by Realtor.com illustrates how regional trends play a dominant role in determining what pricing premia — and wiggle room on affordability — prospective homebuyers may find in their markets.
Ultimately, newly built homes are slowly regaining pricing authority in the broader market as existing-home inventory expands but slow buyer demand softens price growth overall.
Across the U.S., listings for newly constructed homes had a higher rate of price reductions (19.3%) than resale properties (18%) in the fourth quarter by relatively narrow margin. Realtor.com said the market was observing this trend for the “first time in recent history.”
From nearly 24% of nationwide listings in early 2023, the new-home share of listings had eased to just over 18% as of the end of 2025 as existing-home inventory has gradually rebounded from severe post-pandemic lows.
The rising share of existing homes has softened prices in that segment, enabling what Realtor.com calls the “new construction premium” on pricing — which had hovered around 21% in early 2023 — to increase from a low of 8% nationwide in the second quarter of 2025 to just over 14% by the end of the year.
The median list price for a newly built home in the fourth quarter was $451,128, just 0.3% higher from a year ago, while the median list price for an existing home was $394,800, essentially unchanged from the end of 2024.
Through a more specific lens, new homes reclaimed a higher median price per square foot in the fourth quarter, at $218, compared to $217 for existing homes. Though only a $1 difference, existing homes have consistently had a higher price per square foot than new homes going back to early 2024, according to Realtor.com.
“The explanation for this, beyond the fact that builders are pricing aggressively and that new homes tend to be larger, is geographic mix,” said the analysis. “Many new builds tend to be in outlying parts of a metro that are still being developed, while many existing homes are closer to the city center in neighborhoods where land is more valuable.”
As new-home and existing-home pricing trends continue a drawn-out process of normalization following the COVID-19 pandemic, list-price savings for homebuyers considering new builds have been more concentrated in the South and West regions, as is the historical norm.
States with the highest share of new-home listings relative to all single-family homes for sale at the end of the fourth quarter were Idaho (37%), North Carolina (31.4%), Delaware (29.2%), South Carolina (29.1%), Texas (28.6%), Nebraska (26%), Utah (24.8%), Tennessee (24.1%), Alabama (23.1%) and South Dakota (22.5%).
States with the lowest new construction premium relative to existing homes at the end of the fourth quarter were led by South Carolina, California and Florida — which all had a negative pricing new-home pricing premium — of 5.6%, 2.9% and 1.6%, respectively. North Carolina (1.6%), Idaho (4.1%), Texas (8.6%), Arizona (7.3%) and Utah (9.6%) were the next closest to pricing premium parity with existing homes.
And yet, outlier new-home markets in the Midwest and Northeast have also exhibited narrower pricing differences relative to existing homes in those areas, when accounting for the share of home types with price reductions at the end of the fourth quarter.
Indiana was the state was the second-highest share of price-reduced listings for new homes, at 23.3%, compared to 22.1% of existing homes. Minnesota was fourth, with respective marks of 21.6% and 17.4%, while New Jersey was sixth, at 19.9% and 10.7%.
