Price Cuts Hit a Four-Year High and Inventory Neared Pre-Pandemic Levels in September, Realtor.com Reports

September's national housing data landed with a clear verdict: higher mortgage rates finally broke the market's spring-and-summer resilience. Realtor.com's September Monthly Housing Trends report, published this week, found 20.8% of active listings carried a price cut - the highest share for any September since 2018 and the highest for any single month since October 2022, nearly a four-year high.

Inventory kept climbing. Active listings grew 5.5% year over year to more than 1.16 million homes for sale, putting national inventory just 9.1% below typical pre-pandemic levels - the narrowest gap seen yet since the pandemic. For context, the gap was 11.1% as recently as August, and the West region posted the largest year-over-year jump in price-cut share of any region at +1.8 percentage points.

The pricing side continues its long, slow reset. The median list price of $419,250 is down 1.4% year over year - an 11th consecutive month of annual declines - and per-square-foot prices are falling in 37 of the top 50 metros. Meanwhile pending sales ran 4.1% below last year, the sharpest swing in rates knocking roughly $11,500 of buying power off a fixed-budget shopper's numbers between late August and late September.

The LA metro's table row in the report shows the same pattern at local scale: a median list price of $1,034,500, down 5.9% year over year, with 17.1% of listings carrying a price cut. For South Bay sellers, the September record is quantified confirmation that overpricing gets repriced at a record pace; for buyers, options keep expanding while rates above 7% keep the negotiating on their side.

Source: Realtor.com September 2026 Monthly Housing Trends, via RealtyTimes - https://realtytimes.com/real-estate-news/september-2026-monthly-housing-trends-price-cuts-hit-4-year-highs-as-mortgage-rates-top-7

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