Home sellers continue to adjust to the housing market’s new normal, as more than 15% of sellers dropped their asking prices in every major U.S. metro during July, according to Redfin.
The national real estate brokerage evaluated 97 of the largest markets in the country, finding that a high share of sellers nationwide have begun to revise their expectations as demand for homes continues to cool. Boise, Idaho, which for a while was one of the hottest housing markets in the country as a popular destination for outbound West Coast residents looking for a more affordable alternative, had the largest share of homes with a price decline. An astounding 70% of listed homes in the Idaho capital had their asking prices shift downward in July.
“Individual home sellers and builders were both quick to drop their prices early this summer, mostly because they had unrealistic expectations of both price and timelines,” said Shauna Pendleton, a Redfin agent in Boise. “They priced too high because their neighbor’s home sold for an exorbitant price a few months ago and expected to receive multiple offers the first weekend because they heard stories about that happening.
“My advice to sellers is to price their home correctly from the start, accept that the market has slowed and understand that it may take longer than 30 days to sell. If someone is selling a nice home in a desirable neighborhood, they shouldn’t need to drop their price.”
Denver had the second-largest share of asking-price declines at 58%, followed by Salt Lake City at 56.4% and Tacoma, Washington, at 54.8%. Notably, Boise, Salt Lake City and Tacoma also were among the 10 metro areas with the largest increases in their price-declines rates from one year ago.
Rounding out the top 10 were Tampa (with 52.1% of listed homes seeing their prices drop in July), Sacramento (52%), Indianapolis (51.4%), Phoenix (50.1%), San Diego (49.7%) and Portland, Oregon (48.3%).
McAllen, Texas, had the smallest share of price declines at 15.7%, followed by Newark, New Jersey (15.8%); Honolulu (18.5%); and Bridgeport, Connecticut (18.8%). Nashville, according to Redfin’s data, represented July’s typical metro. Some 32.3% of sellers in the city dropped their prices. Half of the metros in the study had a larger percentage of declines while half had a lower percentage.
