The one thing that’s driving home sellers bananas right now — and making buyers happy

FleurSci/Tech2025-07-058550

The housing market is becoming a lot more buyer friendly. Sellers are feeling the sting. - MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto

A rising tide doesn’t quite lift all boats when it comes to the real-estate market.

Alongside falling mortgage rates, the number of homes for sale in the U.S. has increased significantly over the last year, giving buyers way more options and a reprieve from an overheated housing market.

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But sellers are growing increasingly frustrated. Homes are taking longer to sell than a few years ago, and sellers are compelled to cut prices in the hopes of getting an offer on their home. About one in five sellers cut their asking price in May, the highest share in at least nine years, Realtor.com said. That’s when the site first began tracking the data.

The stats showcase the housing market’s U-turn over the last few months. As the pandemic-era homebuying frenzy faded away, the market has largely been frozen over the last few years as homeowners clung to their ultralow mortgage rates and decided not to sell. But even that phenomenon, known as the lock-in effect, has begun to ease.

Housing supply has surged in many parts of the U.S. In pandemic boomtowns like Denver and Austin, housing supply has exceeded prepandemic levels, meaning there are more homes for sale today than there were on average between 2017 and 2019.

Related: The housing market is finally buyer-friendly as more sellers slash prices. Here’s where you can find a deal.

Buyers have the luxury of time in today’s housing market

In Denver, housing inventory has doubled from before the pandemic. The company’s chief economist, Danielle Hale, said the rebound in inventory provided a “clear sign of a housing market realignment.”

For buyers, the flip has been a boon. Sentiment among buyers has improved considerably, with 26% of respondents to a May survey by Fannie Mae saying it was a good time to buy a house — the highest share in three years.

House hunters can afford to take their time and negotiate better deals these days. “It is just a much slower pace,” Christine Dupont-Patz, a Denver-based real-estate broker associate and a co-owner with Re/Max of Cherry Creek, told MarketWatch.

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“You have the luxury of being able to look at a house two, three times, that you did not have a couple of years ago,” when people had to view a house and decide immediately, she added.

Where housing-inventory levels have increased the most

Out of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., 22 have seen inventory levels exceed 2017–2019 norms, Realtor.com said.

All these metro areas are either in the South or the West. A key reason those two regions have seen inventory levels rise has been builders adding new homes to the market.

These are the 10 metro areas where housing supply has exceeded prepandemic levels:

Source: May 2025 Monthly Housing Market Trends

A 51-day wait to sell a house is normal

Even though homes have sold at a fairly brisk pace over the last few years, they’ve taken a lot longer to sell in the past. Sellers are seeing a return to that era.

In May, a home for sale typically spent about 51 days on the market, six days longer than in the same month a year ago. Though sellers may feel like homes are languishing on the market, the number of days on the market is still about the same duration it took to sell before the pandemic, Realtor.com noted.

Mortgage rates are falling — but not by much

Aside from having more listings to choose from, buyers are also seeing a slight improvement in mortgage rates.

In early July, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate dropped to 6.67%, the lowest level in over two months. The 30-year rate dropped 10 basis points from a week ago, when it was 6.77%, Freddie Mac said in its weekly report.

But even the housing-finance giant noted that growing inventory is the bigger win for buyers.

“Declining mortgage rates are encouraging and, while overall affordability challenges remain, we are seeing more sellers enter the market, giving prospective buyers an advantage,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement.

An alternative for sellers to cutting prices: mortgage-rate buydowns

Sellers frustrated by low interest in their homes don’t necessarily have to slash asking prices to get attention, though.

One tactic that Dupont-Patz recommends to some buyers is to get a mortgage-rate buydown, a common strategy used by home builders, in which the seller pays the lender a certain amount of money upfront in exchange for a lower mortgage rate.

Related: More builders slash prices as home buyers stay away from the housing market

For instance, if a home is listed for $1.5 million, a seller can offer a concession of $30,000, which the buyer can tell the lender to put toward lowering their mortgage rate. This has the potential to substantially lower monthly mortgage payments.

“That can significantly save you money,” Dupont-Patz said.