The U.S. housing market's cooldown has reached a new milestone: homes are now selling below their asking price in 38 of the nation's 50 largest cities, and only about 25% of U.S. home sales close above list price, down sharply from 55% back in 2022.
Just three of the 50 largest metros — San Francisco, New York and Boston — are still consistently seeing homes sell above asking, according to figures highlighted this week. CNBC reported that the biggest discounts are concentrated in Florida and Texas, where homes in Miami and West Palm Beach have been selling for nearly 5% below their asking price on average.
Nine Straight Months of Price Declines
The below-asking trend lines up with a broader run of price softening. The national median home listing price fell 2.4% year-over-year to $428,950 in July, marking the ninth consecutive month of annual declines. Sellers cut their asking price on 20% of active listings in July, up from 18.8% in June, though still just below the 20.6% share recorded in July 2025.
An Even Sharper Cut Earlier This Year
Price-cutting was even more aggressive earlier in 2026. More than a third of U.S. home sellers — 34.2% — reduced their asking prices in February, the highest share for that month in more than a decade. Among sellers who cut prices that month, the average reduction was $40,915, or 7.3%, the largest percentage decline for a February since 2023.
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What's Driving the Shift
The combination of elevated mortgage rates and a growing inventory of unsold listings has steadily shifted leverage toward buyers over the past two years, ending the seller's market that defined the 2021-2022 pandemic-era housing boom. With sellers in most major metros now routinely accepting less than their list price, the data suggests the rebalancing between buyers and sellers is continuing rather than stabilizing, even as a handful of supply-constrained coastal markets remain the exception.
