Pending home sales are down 1% year over year while new listings are still rising, giving buyers negotiating power.
Just over 28% of U.S. homes are selling above the asking price, down from 32% a year earlier. That’s the lowest level for this time of year since 2020, when the start of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt.
That’s one signal of the shift toward a buyer’s market in much of the country. For the sake of comparison, more than half (53%) of homes sold above list price during this period in 2022, when the housing market was heavily favoring sellers. The share of homes selling above asking price has fallen year over year in all but five of the most populous U.S. metro areas; San Jose, CA, Anaheim, CA, and Oakland CA saw the biggest declines, though more than half of homes are still selling above asking price in San Jose and Oakland.