The price-cut share: the early-warning number for overpriced listings

The price-cut share, the percentage of active listings that have had at least one price reduction, is the earliest sign that sellers are asking more than buyers will pay. Realtor.com counted 407,028 U.S. listings with a price cut in September 2026, 20.8% of active listings, up from 19.9% a year earlier: about one listing in five. The live figure below updates as Realtor.com publishes each month.

Why it moves first

Sale prices are the last thing to change in a turning market. Contracts take a month or two to close, and sellers resist lower prices. Before that shows up, three things happen in order:

1. Listings sit longer than the seller expected.
2. Sellers cut the price, often after a few weeks of showings without an offer.
3. Days on market rise and, later, sale prices soften.

The price-cut share catches step two. In September 2026 it rose while national days on market barely moved (61 days, against 62 a year earlier), which is the pattern of a market where sellers are adjusting to buyers, not yet a market where homes stop selling.

How to use it at a listing appointment

• Show the local number, not just the national one. Pull the active listings in the seller's area and count how many have a lower list price than their original list price. "Eleven of the 38 homes for sale near you have already cut their price" lands harder than a national statistic.
• Show what a cut costs. Compare the sale prices of homes that sold after a cut with their original list price. When those homes sold below where they started, the seller sees the cost of starting high in their own neighborhood: the listing missed the buyers who look hardest at new listings in the first weeks.
• Use it as permission, not pressure. "One in five sellers in the country is adjusting" tells a seller they are not alone in a changing market. Then price it so they don't have to.

Where it misleads

• A cut is not a failure. Some sellers start high on purpose and plan one reduction. The share counts every cut the same way.
• Seasons. Cuts tend to rise in late summer and fall as the selling season winds down. Compare with the same month a year earlier, as above.
• Different trackers, different shares. Realtor.com counts its own listings; other portals and your MLS will show a different share. Quote one source and stick with it.

Every state's price-cut share for the latest month is in the sortable table on the U.S. housing market statistics page.