Not long ago, a homeowner in America might reasonably wager they could sell their home fairly quickly, and for more than their asking price.
uncertain
they → wager → price
That’s unlikely to be a winning bet now.
asserted
That → ’ → ?
Across the nation, a stagnant housing market is leaving many sellers in limbo, unable to relocate for a new job, buy their next home to accommodate a growing family, or follow through with other major life decisions that necessitate selling their home.
asserted
that → leave → home
Sellers who have the option to pull their listing off the market are generally doing so.
asserted
who → have → market
Those who don’t are under increased pressure to lower their asking price and also kick in thousands of dollars toward a buyer’s costs, real estate agents say.
asserted
agents → do → costs
The trend marks a stark turn from earlier this decade, when sellers often received well above their asking price as home shoppers empowered by rock-bottom mortgage rates fueled a buying frenzy that sent home prices soaring.
asserted
prices → mark → frenzy
Now, the market is stalled by surging mortgage rates, the compounding effect from years of rising home prices and an economic outlook dimmed by high inflation.
asserted
market → stall → inflation
Those factors are putting homeownership out of reach for many buyers while others delay a purchase and hope for more favorable conditions, perhaps in the spring.
asserted
others → put → spring
Sellers easily outnumber buyers and are stuck between uneasy choices: be more aggressive on price cuts and concessions to woo buyers, or hold out longer, even if it means delaying major life plans.
asserted
it → outnumber → plans
“The dynamic has shifted back toward more of what we call buyers’ markets rather than sellers’ markets,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial.
asserted
Fleming → shift → Financial
“(That) means you might have to reduce your price, you might give a concession to get your home sold, it might have to stay on market longer.
uncertain
it → mean → market
More than a year after first listing her home, an empty nester can move on
With her three kids no longer living at home, Liz Suder decided to sell her four-bedroom, 3.5-bath house in Murphy, Texas, about 20 miles outside of Dallas, and buy a smaller place.
asserted
Suder → list → place
“I was waiting to sell the house before I started looking,” said Suder, 56.
asserted
Suder → wait → house
“I didn’t want to have two mortgages.”
asserted
I → want → mortgages
Suder wound up putting her life on hold for more than a year.
asserted
Suder → wind → year
The finance director, who owned the home for 21 years, initially put the house on the market in April 2025 for $750,000.
asserted
who → own → 750,000
Six months later, despite lowering the price several times, the home still hadn’t sold and she took it off the market.
asserted
she → lower → market
Suder relisted the home in February for $725,000 ahead of the spring homebuying season.
asserted
Suder → reliste → season
But it wasn’t until recently that a home shopper agreed to buy it for $650,000.
asserted
shopper → agree → 650,000
Suder sweetened the deal by kicking in $9,000 toward repairs.
asserted
Suder → sweeten → repairs
“I never expected it to take a full year, and for me to have to reduce the price by that much,” she said.
asserted
she → expect → much
Life on hold, but holding the line on a major price cut
Rick Ganga needs to find a buyer for his home in the coastal city of Blaine, Washington, before he can begin the next chapter in his life.
Ganga is going through a divorce that requires the home to be sold.
asserted
home → hold → divorce
He’s had multiple showings of the three-bedroom, 2.5-bath house since it went on the market on June 1 for $825,000.
asserted
it → have → 825,000
Lowering the price to just under $800,000 hasn’t helped.
asserted
Lowering → lower → 800,000
“There’s (been) no offers, virtually zero traffic,” said Ganga, 58.
asserted
Ganga → say → ?
Ganga said some sellers in his neighborhood have dropped their asking price by $100,000 or more, but because he’s only owned the home since 2022, he hasn’t built up enough equity to be able to lower the price any further.
asserted
he → say → price
“That’s not anything I’m going to entertain,” he said.
asserted
he → ’ → ?
“It doesn’t make sense.”
asserted
It → make → sense
Until the home sells, the operations manager has little choice but to set aside plans to transfer with his company to another state.
asserted
manager → sell → state
“I honestly believe that it will probably sit until spring or summer of next year,” he said.
asserted
he → believe → year
Sellers losing leverage as the housing market stalls
After briefly dipping below 6% in February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage surged as high as 7.4% this month, its highest level in nearly three years.
asserted
rate → lose → years
The upward march in rates has stifled U.S. home sales.
asserted
march → stifle → sales
With many sellers lowering their asking price, the national median home listing price declined in September from a year earlier for the 11th month in a row, dropping 1.2% to $419,250, according to Realtor.com.
uncertain
price → lower → Realtor.com
All told, about 21% of listings in September had their initial price lowered, a four-year high.
asserted
price → tell → September
It’s not unusual for home shoppers to ask for — and receive — money from sellers to put toward their closing costs.
asserted
shoppers → ’ → costs
Higher mortgage rates are also giving buyers leverage to press sellers for money to buy down their rate for a few years or for the life of the loan, reducing their overall borrowing costs.
asserted
rates → give → costs
“It’s sort 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, a senior economist at Realtor.com.
asserted
Krimmel → ’ → Realtor.com
That’s good news for home shoppers, but may not be enough to overcome the affordability hurdles keeping many prospective homebuyers out of the market.
uncertain
That → ’ → market
And the number of buyers — roughly 929,000 — represented the fewest on record dating back to 2013, while the tally of sellers jumped to its highest level since 2020.
asserted
tally → represent → 2020
Sluggish housing market stymies a plan to buy a bigger home
That considerable imbalance between buyers and sellers means Ethan Butner may have longer to wait before he sells his home in Troutdale, Oregon, about 16 miles east of Portland.
uncertain
he → stymie → Portland
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
