Seller Concessions Are Back: 56% of LA-Area Home Sales Included Them in August

The balance of negotiating power keeps tilting toward buyers. According to Redfin data highlighted this week by California loan officer Mike Belfor, sellers provided concessions in 44.7% of U.S. home sales in August 2026, up from 42.6% a year earlier. A concession is anything the seller provides that reduces the buyer's total cost of the purchase - help with closing costs, repairs, or a mortgage-rate buydown.

The California breakdown shows how market-by-market this is. Redfin reported concessions on 58% of Riverside-area sales, 57.1% in San Diego and 56.2% in Los Angeles - while San Francisco sat at just 18.6% and San Jose at 4.2%. There really is not one California housing market right now.

The practical lesson for buyers: a price reduction is not always the only option, and it is not always the best one. Belfor walks through the math - on $10,000 of negotiating room, you can cut the price, cover closing costs, or buy down the rate for a year or two, and the three choices have very different financial consequences. Mortgage programs have rules on what is allowable, so the lender should be part of the conversation before you structure the offer.

For South Bay buyers, this is timely. With roughly a third of active listings taking price reductions and rates sitting at 7%, LA-area sellers are contributing to deals at a rate unseen since well before the pandemic frenzy. Instead of just asking how far below asking you can go, ask how to structure the offer for the best overall financial result - sometimes the right answer is a rate buydown that makes the monthly payment work, not a smaller price on paper.

Source: Mike Belfor / California Mortgage Tips (citing Redfin August 2026 data) - https://www.mikebelfor.com/post/seller-concessions-are-back-what-homebuyers-should-negotiate-in-today-s-housing-market

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