Home Listing Prices Post Another Record Decline, Boosting Affordability for Buyers

Summer is officially here and homebuyers are jumping into the market, lured by listing prices that are falling at the fastest clip in at least nine years as sellers finally accept a new, slow-and-steady reality.

June saw the national median asking price fall 2.5% from a year ago to $430,000, according to the latest Realtor.com® monthly housing market trends report released Wednesday. This marks the eighth consecutive month of decreases and the steepest annual decline in the platform's data history, which dates back to 2017.

For a buyer who purchased a $430,000 home in June with a 20% down payment and an average mortgage rate of 6.49%, the typical monthly payment was $2,172. That is roughly $132 less per month—and more than $1,500 less per year—than what the typical buyer owed in June 2025, when the median price was $440,950 and rates averaged 6.82%.

And in June, for the first time in more than two years, the typical for-sale home spent no more time on market than it did a year earlier, holding flat at 53 days. This signals that buyers are responding to affordability gains.

New housing data backs up this narrative. Pending sales rose 3.7% year over year for the seventh straight month of growth, even as the share of listings with a price cut shrank by 1.9 percentage points to 18.8%.

"Sellers are reading market conditions and are pricing accordingly from the start rather than listing high and cutting later, and buyers are taking note and making bids," says Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. "This is a welcome sign that we are in a functioning market."

Realistic pricing drives demand

Real estate professionals across the U.S. confirm this shift.

"Starting out too high and chasing the market down is never fun," Melanie Muss, a broker associate at Douglas Elliman in Aspen, CO, tells Realtor.com. "Our sellers are smart and sophisticated, and I do believe they understand what happens when they list too high, although many sellers think buyers will write offers if they want the property, and I believe that is not happening as frequently as sellers would hope."

Still, pricing strategies can vary wildly across different property types and price points, leaving some sellers to learn today's market realities the hard way.

"At the high end, we are consistently seeing sellers price at aspirational levels," Marcy Roth, an agent at Douglas Elliman in Beverly Hills, CA, tells Realtor.com. "We are watching these properties go through multiple price adjustments and agents until finding a real buyer. Many sellers have been trying to sell for years, until they come to understand where the market is at."

A 'no-news-is-good-news' June

Overall, June was a month of continuity for the economy and stability for the national housing market, with mortgage rates settling near 6.5% after a roller-coaster spring roiled by rising inflation and economic fallout from the war in Iran. 

Further contributing to this newfound sense of equilibrium, according to Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel, was the Federal Reserve policymakers' unanimous decision to keep the federal funds rate steady at its current 3.5% to 3.75% range.

"It was a no-news-is-good-news June," notes Krimmel. "While it may seem obvious now, this was far from a foregone conclusion just a few months ago."

Despite mortgage rates sitting in the mid-6% range, the housing market continued humming along, with new listings increasing 2.4% from a year ago—a sign that sellers are coming off the sidelines despite falling asking prices because they are reasonably confident they could find a buyer.

"Unlike last year, sellers are willing to take a slight haircut to move, and buyers get a little relief on price to offset rates that settled higher than hoped," explains Krimmel.

In fact, delistings—homes pulled from the market without a sale—were down nearly 10% year over year, and sitting at roughly 5% of all active listings. This places them near their lowest share since last year's surge began.

Regional and metro-level metrics

Active inventory reached 1,102,615 listings in June, up 1.9% from a year ago, led by major annual gains in the Northeast (+8.5%) and Midwest (+7.3%), which easily offset nearly flat results in the South (-0.1%) and West (+0.3%).

Meanwhile, new listings grew 2.4% year over year to 463,480. The Northeast lead the charge with the strongest gains (+12.6%), supported by modest growth in the Midwest (+1%), South (+1%) and West (+0.2%). 

Regionally, list prices in June fell by the widest margin in the West (-4%), followed by the South (-2.5%), and Northeast (-1%), with only the Midwest keeping steady compared with a year ago. 

At the metro level, median list price per square foot, which accounts for home sizes, dropped in 33 of the largest 50 metros, with Austin, TX, experiencing the most dramatic pullback (-8.2%), followed by Memphis, TN, (-6%) and Buffalo, NY (-5.2%). 

On the other hand, Providence, RI, emerged as the month’s biggest winner, with the median price per square foot there surging 8.7% year over year. Indianapolis, IN, came in second with a 4.9% gain, while New York claimed third place, with +3.4%.  

Heading into July, which historically is marked by a slowdown in home listing and buying activity, Krimmel says the key metrics to watch include days on market, price cuts, and new listings.

"So far, the leading indicators are holding, so we do not expect the market to stall out like it did last summer," he concludes.