Nearly 1 in 4 Zillow home listings in the Philly area had a price cut in June
Sellers have had to adjust their expectations when it comes to how much they ask people to pay for their homes as sales have slowed and some potential buyers are priced out of the market.
Here’s some good news for local homebuyers.
Philadelphia-area home sellers cut prices on roughly 24% of listings in June, which falls within the typically busy spring housing market. That’s up from about 21% at the same time last year, according to Zillow.
As more markets across the country shift to favor buyers, sellers still mostly have the upper hand in the Philadelphia region. That’s because the region remains relatively affordable, and home supply hasn’t kept up with demand, even as that demand has slowed.
“You just have a market still somewhat starved for inventory,” said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow.
That’s keeping the share of price cuts in the Philadelphia region lower than in other areas of the country.
Nationally, about 27% of home listings had price cuts in June, the highest percentage Zillow has ever recorded for the month.
Areas such as Raleigh, N.C.; Nashville; and Phoenix — which attracted a lot of attention and development during the pandemic with their open space and relative affordability — are among the places where price cuts increased the most in June.
Sellers dropped prices for more than a third of home listings in these areas after builders ramped up construction but found less demand than anticipated, Divounguy said.
In markets across the country, “affordability remains a big challenge for a lot of people,” he said. Sellers have had to adjust their expectations when it comes to how much they ask people to pay for their homes as sales have slowed and some potential buyers are priced out of the market.
In the Denver metro, 38% of home listings had price cuts in June, the highest percentage in the country.
In other areas, housing supply isn’t keeping up with demand, so price cuts are rarer. In June, sellers cut prices for about 16% of home listings in the New York metro and 14% of listings in the Milwaukee region.
Across the country, markets are going back to a more normal pace in which the gap between sellers and buyers is shrinking — “a healthy rebalancing,” Divounguy said.
He advises sellers to work with real estate agents to price their homes realistically and to make sure their properties are listed publicly so as many potential buyers as possible can see them.
Buyers should get their finances in order early in the purchasing process, tackling high-interest debt and identifying homebuyer financial assistance programs.