Key Takeaways
- Price cuts hit 20.5% of U.S. listings in October 2026, the highest October share since 2022 and the fourth straight month above one in five listings, according to Realtor.com.
- Salt Lake City led the 50 largest metros at 31.8% of listings cut, ahead of Indianapolis at 31.7% and Denver at 30.9%, while New York was lowest at 12.6%.
- Twelve of the 50 largest metros saw cuts on a quarter or more of listings, and 34 metros are running above their cut rate from a year ago.
- Only about 43% of current active listings have ever had a price cut, down from nearly 55% a year ago, so an October cut is a fresher signal than a stale listing finally giving in.
More than one in five homes for sale in America got a price cut in October. Realtor.com’s November 14 look at where sellers are cutting prices the most put Salt Lake City at the top of the 50 largest metros, with 31.8% of its listings reduced.
The national share was 20.5%. That is just 0.2 percentage points above a year ago and down from September’s 20.8%, but it is still the highest October reading since 2022, when the share was 21.5%.
The 10 Metros Where Sellers Cut Prices the Most in October
Salt Lake City’s median list price was $559,000 in October, down 3.5% from a year earlier. Its share of listings with a price cut rose 1.6 percentage points over last October, the data in Realtor.com’s October 2026 housing report shows.
| Metro | Listings with a price cut | Median list price | Median list price vs. a year ago |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake City, UT | 31.8% | $559,000 | -3.5% |
| Indianapolis, IN | 31.7% | $305,000 | -4.7% |
| Denver, CO | 30.9% | $564,900 | -5.0% |
| Portland, OR | 30.6% | $580,000 | -3.2% |
| Phoenix, AZ | 29.5% | $475,000 | -4.0% |
| Columbus, OH | 27.6% | $370,000 | +1.2% |
| Charlotte, NC | 27.1% | $419,900 | -4.1% |
| San Antonio, TX | 27.0% | $319,900 | -2.5% |
| Raleigh, NC | 26.8% | $445,000 | -2.6% |
| Dallas-Fort Worth, TX | 26.4% | $419,900 | -1.2% |
Eight of these top 10 metros also topped the list in October 2025, so most are longstanding softer markets rather than new trouble spots. Raleigh and Salt Lake City are the newest additions to the top 10.
Weather explains part of the pattern at the top. Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel said of Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Portland, and Denver: “These markets in particular compared to the rest of the list, which is mostly Sun Belt, can be very unfavorable to sellers when the weather gets cold and buyers stay away until spring.”
Salt Lake City has one more local twist, according to Joel Carson, a real estate agent in the area for over 30 years. Carson said: “Utah is very unique in that people don’t lowball offers. They don’t want to offend the seller, so they’ll wait for that price reduction before they offer.”
Cuts Are Common, but Sellers Are Not Panicking
The regional split shows where the leverage sits. Price reductions were least common in the Northeast at 16.8% of listings and most common in the West at 21.6%, with the Midwest at 20.9% and the South at 21.0%.
The tightest large metros were all in the Northeast. New York had the lowest cut share at 12.6%, and Hartford was at 14.2%, the same Hartford that just topped Realtor.com’s hottest markets ranking for October.
Sellers are bending on price without fleeing the market. About 4.4% of active listings were delisted in October, versus 4.6% a year ago, and new listings fell 10.3% year over year in the week ending November 7, so fewer fresh sellers are arriving to replace the ones cutting.
That mix matters against the national backdrop, where sellers outnumbered buyers by 70.5% in October, a record for a sixth straight month. Buyers have choices, and in the top cut metros they are using them to wait sellers out.
The fresh insight is in the history of today’s listings. About 43% of current active listings have ever had their price reduced, down from nearly 55% a year ago, which means October’s cuts are not mostly old listings finally surrendering after months of small reductions.
How Buyers and Sellers Use a Price-Cut Map
A price cut is information, not a discount guarantee. Use it in this order:
- Shop where cuts are routine, offer where they are not expected. In Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, and Denver, roughly three in ten listings have already cut, so a firm offer below ask is normal market behavior there. In New York or Hartford, where cuts are rare, the same offer needs stronger support from comparable sales.
- Wait for the cut in polite markets, negotiate early in direct ones. Carson’s point about Salt Lake City is actionable: if local buyers wait for reductions instead of lowballing, a patient buyer can let the seller make the first move. His own practice runs the other way for sellers, pricing 5% to 8% under current value to attract buyers who are wary of asking for concessions.
- If you are selling, cut once and cut enough. Carson said: “Just this last week, we were at $345,000 on a house and we went to $320,000 and got an offer, so we’re under contract. We actually got two offers.” That is a $25,000 cut, about 7.2% of the original price. He added: “Once you know what your seller’s bandwidth is, I try to do a large price reduction versus these tiny little ones, and it’s very effective.”
- Read a cut together with time on market. A cut in the first weeks, in a metro where 34 of the top 50 are cutting more than a year ago, signals a seller testing a high opening price. A cut after a long sit, with delistings still low nationally, signals a seller who needs the sale more than the headline price.
- Do not pay the pre-cut price in your math. Underwrite the deal at the reduced price and at the price one more cut would bring. If the rent and resale numbers only work at today’s ask in a top-10 cut metro, the market is telling you the ask is not the value.
October did not bring a wave of desperate sellers. It brought a fourth straight month in which more than one in five listings cut price, concentrated in a familiar set of softer metros, while the tight Northeast barely cut at all.
For a beginner investor, that split is the opportunity. Buy where cuts are common and expected, move at the speed of one decisive reduction, and let sellers in the high-cut metros do the first round of negotiating for you.
Data source: Realtor.com, October 2026 monthly housing report and November 14, 2026 price-cut metro report.
