The typical U.S. household is now looking at a median mortgage payment of $2,641 a month, the highest that figure has been in 14 months, according to Redfin’s latest weekly housing market update. That’s up 2.8% from a year ago, and it’s happening even as a record share of sellers are cutting their asking prices just to keep buyers interested.
Redfin’s data shows 20.8% of active listings carried a price drop during the four weeks ending September 7, up from 19.8% at the same point last year. Homes are also sitting longer, a median of 46 days on the market, one day more than a year ago. Put those two numbers together and you get a market that’s technically still moving, just more slowly and with sellers doing more of the concessions than they’d like.
Two Forces Pulling in Opposite Directions
The tug-of-war here is straightforward. Mortgage rates and elevated prices are keeping monthly payments high enough to sideline plenty of would-be buyers, while the sellers who do need to move, whether for a job, a growing family, or a life change that won’t wait, are increasingly willing to shave off a few thousand dollars rather than let a listing go stale. Redfin Premier agent Vanessa Leimbeck, quoted in the company’s own report, summed up the dynamic bluntly: “Pricing attracts attention. Overpricing creates hesitation.”
Not every metric points toward buyer leverage, though. A quarter of homes, 25.5%, still sold above their asking price, up slightly from 24.9% a year ago, which tells you competition for well-priced, move-in-ready homes hasn’t disappeared entirely. Pending sales ticked up just 0.1% week-over-week but remain down 2.1% from a year ago, and new listings actually fell 4.8% week-over-week, though Redfin attributes part of that dip to the Labor Day holiday slowing new listing activity rather than any real shift in seller behavior.
What This Means for Your Search
If you’re shopping right now, the practical takeaway is that the sticker price on a listing is increasingly a starting point, not a final number, especially on anything that’s been sitting for more than a few weeks. Months of supply nationally sits at 3.9, up slightly from 3.8, still on the tight side of balanced but trending in buyers’ favor. The homes selling fast and over asking are still out there, mostly the well-priced ones in good condition, but the broader market is giving buyers more negotiating room than it has in over a year. For sellers, the message from Redfin’s own data is just as direct: price it right the first time, because overpriced listings are the ones sitting the longest and eventually taking the biggest cuts anyway.
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