Homebuyers Are Scoring the Biggest Autumn Discounts Since 2019
- The typical home that sold last month went for 1.4% less than its final list price—the biggest September discount in six years—as a slow housing market empowered buyers to negotiate.
- The typical home that sold also spent 50 days on the market—the slowest September pace in nearly a decade.
- Existing-home sales inched up to the highest level in eight months, but pending sales—a more current gauge of demand—fell from both a month and a year earlier.
- Sellers have started to pull back in response to sluggish demand; active listings fell roughly 1%.
Three metrics that measure competition in the U.S. housing market each dropped to the lowest September level in six years last month.
Share of homes selling above list price: 25.3% of homes that sold went for more than their final list price, down from 28.5% a year earlier.
Average sale-to-list-price ratio: This metric came in at 98.6%, down from 99.1% a year earlier. That means the typical home sold for 1.4% less than its final list price, compared with 0.9% less last September.
Share of homes selling in two weeks: 32.8% of homes that went under contract did so within two weeks of being listed, down from 34.9% a year earlier.
A fourth metric—time on market—shows that the housing market is moving at the slowest pace for this time of year in nearly a decade. The typical home that went under contract in September sat on the market for 50 days—the slowest September pace since 2016.
The housing market is sluggish because high costs and economic uncertainty are limiting the number of people buying homes. Inventory has also ticked up, meaning the buyers who are in the market have more options and many of them can afford to take their time. There are 36.7% more home sellers in the market than buyers—a near-record gap. The good news for buyers is this means they often have an opportunity to negotiate and ask for concessions.
“Homebuyers have extremely high expectations. Some of them remember being preapproved for a 3% mortgage rate during the pandemic, which meant they could afford a $450,000 house. Now that rates, insurance costs and property taxes have gone up, they can only afford a $325,000 house, but still have $450,000 expectations,” said Roze Swartz, a Redfin real estate agent in Houston. “Sellers can’t be picky on price—if they don’t have the lowest price on the market, they’re not even going to get showings. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s better to price low from the start than price high and make a drastic cut after your home has been sitting on the market for months without any offers.”
Home Prices Post Biggest Increase in Six Months
The median home sale price rose 1.7% year over year to $435,545 in September—the biggest uptick in six months and the highest September level on record.
Home price growth was slowing during the first half of the year because inventory was rising, giving buyers more options to choose from. While buyers still have a lot more options than they had in recent years, listings have started to tick down in recent months, which has in turn pushed up sale prices. Still, as mentioned above, sellers in many markets are accepting offers for less than their list prices because buyers continue to have negotiating power.
Active listings fell 0.6% month over month to 1.96 million in September on a seasonally adjusted basis—the lowest level since February—but were still up 8% year over year. Sellers have pulled back in recent months because homebuyer demand is sluggish. Redfin agents report that some sellers are pulling their homes off the market and opting to rent them out instead if they don’t get the price they want.
Existing-Home Sales Rise to Highest Level of the Year as Mortgage Rates Decline
Existing-home sales rose 0.4% month over month and 4.5% year over year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.25 million in September. That’s the highest level since January and the largest year-over-year gain since December.
Total home sales rose 0.7% month over month on a seasonally adjusted basis and climbed 3.4% year over year to the highest level since October 2022.
Home sales have likely inched up due to a decline in mortgage rates. Rates have been ticking down for most of 2025, and averaged 6.35% in September—the lowest level in a year.
It’s worth noting that existing home sales and total sales are backward-looking metrics and represent deals that were negotiated in months past. A more current gauge of homebuyer demand is pending home sales, which fell 1% month over month on a seasonally-adjusted basis in September and dropped 2.4% year over year—the biggest annual decline since February. Redfin agents in some markets report that while the drop in rates has brought some buyers off of the sidelines, many are waiting in hopes that rates fall further.
September 2025 Housing Market Highlights: United States
| September 2025 | Month-over-month change | Year-over-year change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $435,545 | -0.9% | 1.7% |
| Existing-home sales, seasonally adjusted annual rate | 4,247,767 | 0.4% | 4.5% |
| Pending home sales, seasonally adjusted | 480,459 | -1.0% | -2.4% |
| Homes sold, seasonally adjusted | 435,635 | 0.7% | 3.4% |
| New listings, seasonally adjusted | 539,306 | 0.7% | -0.3% |
| Total homes for sale, seasonally adjusted (active listings) | 1,958,187 | -0.6% | 8.0% |
| Months of supply | 3.4 | 0.1 | 0 |
| Median days on market | 50 | 4 | 8 |
| Share of homes that sold above final list price | 25.3% | -1.7 ppts | -3.3 ppts |
| Average sale-to-final-list-price ratio | 98.6% | -0.2 ppts | -0.4 ppts |
|
Pending sales that fell out of contract, as % of overall pending sales |
15.0% | 0.5 ppts | 1.5 ppts |
| Monthly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate | 6.35% | -0.24 ppts |
0.17 ppts |
Note: Data are subject to revision
September 2025 Metro-Level Highlights
The figures below are based on a list of the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. Some metros may be removed from time to time to ensure data accuracy. Refer to our metrics definition page for explanations of metrics used in this report. Metro-level data are not seasonally adjusted. All changes below represent year-over-year changes.
- Prices: Median sale prices rose most from a year earlier in the Midwest: Milwaukee (9.1%), Detroit (7.9%) and Cleveland (7.4%) saw the biggest increases. The biggest declines were in Texas: Dallas (-2.7%), Austin (-2.3%) and Houston (-1.5%).
- Pending home sales: Pending sales rose most in San Francisco (17.1%), Riverside, CA (11.6%) and West Palm Beach, FL (11%). They fell most in Houston (-11.7%), Denver (-8.4%) and San Antonio (-6.3%).
- Closed home sales: Home sales rose most in Providence, RI (17.1%), San Francisco (15.6%) and West Palm Beach (14.6%). They fell most in Detroit (-8.6%), Orlando, FL (-6.5%) and Nassau County, NY (-2.6%).
- New listings: New listings rose most in Detroit (11.6%), Boston (9.2%) and Pittsburgh (7.8%). They fell most in Anaheim, CA (-10.6%), San Antonio (-10.2%) and Orlando (-9.9%).
- Active listings: Active listings rose most in Washington, D.C. (21.1%), Las Vegas (20.7%) and Seattle (16.6%). They fell in just two metros: San Francisco (-7.7%) and San Jose, CA (-6%).
- Sold above list price: In San Francisco, the average sale-to-list-price ratio was 104.2%, meaning the typical home sold for 4.2% above its final list price—the biggest premium of any metro. Next came Newark, NJ (103.1%) and San Jose (102.2%). The metros with the lowest ratios are in Florida: West Palm Beach (94.8%), Miami (95.2%) and Fort Lauderdale (95.4%).
- Days on market: In Fort Lauderdale, the typical home that went under contract did so in 97 days, up 26 days from a year earlier—the biggest increase among the metros Redfin analyzed. Next came Miami (+23 days) and Las Vegas (+19 days). Three metros saw decreases in days on market: Kansas City, MO (-3 days), San Francisco (-2 days) and Chicago (-1 day).
September 2025 Full Metro-Level Data
| U.S. metro area | Median sale price | Median sale price, Y/Y change | Pending sales, Y/Y change | Homes sold, Y/Y change | New listings, Y/Y change | Active listings, Y/Y change | Median days on market | Median days on market, Y/Y change | Average sale-to-final-list-price ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim, CA | $1,200,000 | 3.0% | 6.8% | 11.4% | -10.6% | 12.9% | 51 | 13 | 98.7% |
| Atlanta, GA | $395,000 | -1.3% | -0.9% | 3.2% | -4.9% | 9.3% | 60 | 14 | 97.6% |
| Austin, TX | $419,900 | -2.3% | -2.0% | 10.2% | -6.7% | 10.8% | 91 | 15 | 96.7% |
| Baltimore, MD | $400,000 | 0.5% | -3.3% | 4.7% | 5.5% | 16.4% | 36 | 9 | 99.5% |
| Boston, MA | $720,000 | 2.1% | 2.4% | 4.1% | 9.2% | 15.8% | 25 | 4 | 100.0% |
| Charlotte, NC | $410,000 | 2.5% | N/A | 8.3% | 0.3% | 15.3% | 66 | 12 | 98.1% |
| Chicago, IL | $360,000 | 2.9% | 7.5% | 6.1% | 2.1% | 0.1% | 52 | -1 | 99.5% |
| Cincinnati, OH | $305,000 | 4.8% | -1.9% | 3.9% | 6.9% | 6.9% | 42 | 1 | 98.4% |
| Cleveland, OH | $247,000 | 7.4% | 9.0% | 11.3% | 6.1% | 10.1% | 28 | 5 | 98.5% |
| Columbus, OH | $345,000 | 0.9% | 7.5% | 2.7% | -0.2% | 15.3% | 47 | 4 | 98.6% |
| Dallas, TX | $404,000 | -2.7% | 1.2% | 1.3% | -3.4% | 15.3% | 67 | 14 | 97.1% |
| Denver, CO | $585,000 | 1.7% | -8.4% | 6.1% | -7.0% | 9.8% | 47 | 14 | 98.3% |
| Detroit, MI | $213,000 | 7.9% | -1.1% | -8.6% | 11.6% | 13.6% | 25 | 0 | 98.2% |
| Fort Lauderdale, FL | $450,000 | 0.0% | 3.9% | 5.1% | -7.5% | 6.5% | 97 | 26 | 95.4% |
| Fort Worth, TX | $350,500 | 0.1% | -3.2% | 6.6% | -4.0% | 5.3% | 58 | 6 | 97.7% |
| Houston, TX | $329,900 | -1.5% | -11.7% | 0.9% | -5.3% | 12.4% | 60 | 11 | 96.3% |
| Indianapolis, IN | $312,250 | 4.1% | 4.4% | -1.5% | 6.5% | 14.1% | 28 | 9 | 97.9% |
| Jacksonville, FL | $365,000 | -0.5% | 3.9% | 3.4% | -9.1% | 3.2% | 85 | 18 | 96.9% |
| Kansas City, MO | $349,900 | 6.0% | N/A | 13.4% | 3.5% | 0.7% | 27 | -3 | N/A |
| Las Vegas, NV | $440,000 | -1.1% | -5.6% | 2.8% | -4.7% | 20.7% | 63 | 19 | 97.8% |
| Los Angeles, CA | $915,000 | 3.4% | 6.9% | 12.0% | -2.7% | 11.6% | 55 | 12 | 99.2% |
| Miami, FL | $560,000 | 1.8% | 7.5% | 0.0% | -9.8% | 9.2% | 92 | 23 | 95.2% |
| Milwaukee, WI | $360,000 | 9.1% | 2.3% | 4.7% | 3.5% | 3.2% | 42 | 1 | 100.4% |
| Minneapolis, MN | $394,000 | 3.7% | -3.0% | 9.0% | 2.8% | 3.1% | 29 | 2 | 99.7% |
| Montgomery County, PA | $485,000 | 2.7% | 1.0% | 4.4% | 4.6% | 6.7% | 31 | 6 | 100.5% |
| Nashville, TN | $455,000 | 1.1% | -0.1% | 2.3% | 1.3% | 14.4% | 68 | 10 | 97.9% |
| Nassau County, NY | $750,000 | 4.2% | -1.2% | -2.6% | 1.5% | 3.1% | 30 | 2 | 101.3% |
| New Brunswick, NJ | $575,000 | 3.6% | 4.3% | 7.7% | 0.9% | 8.4% | 39 | 7 | 100.4% |
| New York, NY | $785,000 | 5.1% | 1.2% | 2.7% | 1.9% | 8.5% | 58 | 6 | 99.9% |
| Newark, NJ | $595,000 | 0.1% | 7.1% | 4.7% | 6.4% | 14.5% | 37 | 14 | 103.1% |
| Oakland, CA | $904,000 | -1.3% | 2.1% | 9.3% | -3.7% | 9.2% | 28 | 8 | 101.7% |
| Orlando, FL | $407,995 | 1.7% | -3.4% | -6.5% | -9.9% | 4.2% | 58 | 15 | 97.3% |
| Philadelphia, PA | $280,000 | 1.8% | 1.3% | 3.0% | 6.0% | 4.8% | 44 | 2 | 97.2% |
| Phoenix, AZ | $465,000 | 3.3% | -1.0% | 10.3% | -2.7% | 12.4% | 71 | 14 | 97.9% |
| Pittsburgh, PA | $250,000 | 6.4% | 5.8% | 10.1% | 7.8% | 9.1% | 55 | 2 | 97.1% |
| Portland, OR | $550,000 | 0.0% | 1.1% | 7.9% | -4.4% | 11.4% | 37 | 6 | 99.3% |
| Providence, RI | $532,000 | 6.4% | 3.8% | 17.1% | 7.0% | 11.2% | 31 | 5 | 100.1% |
| Riverside, CA | $580,000 | 1.1% | 11.6% | 6.3% | -6.1% | 9.0% | 60 | 14 | 98.8% |
| Sacramento, CA | $585,000 | -0.4% | 3.0% | 13.9% | -6.5% | 13.7% | 40 | 15 | 98.7% |
| San Antonio, TX | $310,000 | 0.2% | -6.3% | -2.5% | -10.2% | 7.3% | 80 | 10 | 96.8% |
| San Diego, CA | $899,450 | -0.1% | 1.5% | 11.0% | -5.6% | 11.4% | 38 | 10 | 98.8% |
| San Francisco, CA | $1,482,500 | -0.7% | 17.1% | 15.6% | -3.7% | -7.7% | 21 | -2 | 104.2% |
| San Jose, CA | $1,603,000 | 6.9% | 0.0% | 3.3% | -5.1% | -6.0% | 19 | 1 | 102.2% |
| Seattle, WA | $826,000 | 0.1% | -5.2% | 2.5% | 0.7% | 16.6% | 28 | 10 | 99.0% |
| St. Louis, MO | $285,000 | 7.3% | N/A | 1.8% | 6.1% | 10.7% | 29 | 4 | 99.4% |
| Tampa, FL | $370,000 | -0.3% | -1.4% | 10.2% | -3.0% | 2.3% | 59 | 16 | 96.7% |
| Virginia Beach, VA | $368,800 | 5.4% | 0.5% | 7.9% | 7.0% | 11.7% | 36 | 3 | 99.4% |
| Warren, MI | $329,450 | 4.6% | -0.1% | 5.4% | 2.6% | 9.4% | 25 | 5 | 98.9% |
| Washington, D.C. | $570,000 | 1.1% | -3.0% | 1.6% | 5.1% | 21.1% | 46 | 12 | 99.3% |
| West Palm Beach, FL | $490,000 | 2.1% | 11.0% | 14.6% | -1.9% | 2.0% | 92 | 14 | 94.8% |
The post Homebuyers Are Scoring the Biggest Autumn Discounts Since 2019 appeared first on Redfin Real Estate News.
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