With inventory trending up and homebuyers on the retreat from actively shopping, home listings are beginning to accumulate, and more sellers are trimming prices to attract purchases.
That’s according to Zillow, which reported that 24.5% — virtually a quarter of listings — saw a price cut in June. That’s the highest June share Zillow has ever recorded, dating back to when the company began tracking the metric in 2018.
“A growing segment of homes that aren’t competitively priced or well-marketed are lingering on the market,” said Skylar Olsen, chief economist at Zillow. “ Sellers are increasingly cutting prices to entice buyers struggling with affordability.
“For years, the housing market has been defined by fast sales and few options. Now it’s starting to look more like it did before the pandemic in terms of competition, if not costs. As the wait for mortgage rate relief drags on, slower price growth and even dips in some areas will help buyers catch up on saving for a downpayment.”
Per Zillow data, annual home price appreciation is down from a 2024 peak of 4.6% in March to 3.2% in June, a figure Zillow called “reasonable.” Month over month, price growth is down to 0.6%, the slowed pace of June appreciation in 13 years.
Price growth has slackened due to the slow but steady rise of for-sale listings over the course of the year. There’s more for-sale supply in all but just two (New York and Cleveland) of the 50 largest metro areas in the country, per Zillow listings. The number of homes on the market nationwide rose 4% from May to June, bringing the figure to almost 23% before last year’s low.
To be clear, supply is still lagging compared to historical norms; inventory remains some 33% below pre-pandemic levels, for example. But the gap between current and pre-COVID inventory hasn’t been this narrow since the fall of 2020, when the count of for-sale homes started to plunge because of the pandemic housing boom.
And as Olsen said, properties are sitting on the market for longer, giving buyers a few more days to see properties and comparison shop. Zillow noted that while the most appealing listings are still selling with relative speed, homes sold in June stayed on the market for 15 days before an offer was accepted. That’s just five days shorter than the pre-pandemic norm, the smallest gap since June 2020.
