The share of homes with price cuts is getting closer to where it was a year ago.
For the week ending Aug. 7, 41.44% of active single-family listings nationally had taken a price cut, compared with 41.85% during the same week last year.
Eight weeks ago, the gap between 2026 and 2025 was 1.34 percentage points. It has narrowed to just 0.41 points.
That could be easy to read as a straightforward signal that sellers are facing more pricing pressure.
Look closer, and the picture gets more complicated.
HousingWire Data shows that some markets have significantly more price cuts than a year ago. Others have fewer, even as inventory grows. And in some markets, price cuts are increasing while homes continue to move at a stronger pace.
The national number tells us what is happening in aggregate. The local data helps explain what it means for housing professionals making decisions today.
Price cuts are moving closer to last year’s level
HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami has been tracking the narrowing gap in price cuts in his weekly Housing Market Tracker.
Higher mortgage rates have put more pressure on housing demand in recent weeks, but the national market continues to hold up better than might be expected. That makes price cuts one of the signals worth watching.
The price-cut rate alone, however, cannot tell us whether a local market is seeing weaker demand, greater seller competition or healthy transaction activity alongside more price adjustments.
Kansas City, Minneapolis and San Antonio show why.
Kansas City has more inventory but fewer price cuts
Kansas City challenges the assumption that more inventory automatically means sellers need to cut prices more aggressively.
Active inventory reached 5,598 homes for the week ending Aug. 7, up 21.2% from 4,618 a year ago.
Yet 35.12% of active listings had taken a price cut, compared with 42.57% during the same week last year. That is a 7.45-percentage-point decline. The price-cut share was below its year-ago level in seven of the past eight weeks.
Other signals add context. Absorbed listings increased 5.4% year over year, while new pending activity declined 6.7%. The overall active median was $423,245. The new listing median was $380,000, while the pending-list median was $415,000.
The pending-list median reflects the median list price of homes newly moving to pending, not a closed-sale price.
The industry takeaway: Rising inventory alone is not enough to conclude that seller pricing power is deteriorating. For agents, builders and investors, the more useful question is whether additional supply is translating into more price reductions and weaker transaction activity. So far, Kansas City has significantly more inventory but fewer price cuts than a year ago.
Minneapolis has more price cuts and more transactions
Minneapolis tells a different story.
Its price-cut share reached 37.69%, up 2.64 percentage points from 35.05% a year ago. Price cuts have remained above their year-ago level for eight consecutive weeks.
Inventory is also up sharply. The metro had 6,655 active listings, 22.3% more than a year ago.
But transaction activity complicates any simple softening narrative. New pending listings increased 8.7% year over year, while absorbed listings rose 16.9%.
The pricing signals show another divide. Minneapolis had a $509,000 overall active median, compared with a $456,081 new listing median and a $459,975 pending-list median.
The industry takeaway: More price cuts do not automatically mean buyers have disappeared. For agents, Minneapolis suggests sellers face more price competition even while transaction activity remains healthy. For mortgage professionals, rising pending and absorbed activity points to continued pipeline opportunity despite more listings requiring price reductions.
San Antonio shows broader pricing pressure
San Antonio presents a third operating environment.
Just over half of active listings, 50.68%, had taken a price cut for the week ending Aug. 7. That was 6.37 percentage points higher than the same week last year.
Unlike Kansas City and Minneapolis, San Antonio’s active inventory was essentially flat year over year at 16,046 homes.
New pending activity declined 9%. Absorbed listings, however, increased 3.9% year over year, a signal that does not align as neatly with the other measures and is worth monitoring.
The metro’s three pricing signals move lower at each stage. The overall active median was $335,000. New listings entered at a median of $322,292. Homes newly moving to pending carried a median list price of $310,000.
That puts the pending-list median about $12,300 below the new listing median and $25,000 below the overall active median.
The industry takeaway: Agents pricing listings should pay attention to where homes moving toward contract are concentrated relative to the broader inventory. Builders and investors should consider the same relationship when evaluating pricing, incentives and absorption assumptions. San Antonio’s combination of higher price cuts, lower new pending activity and lower pending-list pricing points to greater pricing pressure, while the increase in absorbed listings provides another signal to watch before drawing a broader conclusion.
What price cuts can and can’t tell you
The national price-cut rate is only 0.41 percentage points below last year. But Kansas City and San Antonio alone are nearly 14 percentage points apart when comparing their year-over-year price-cut gaps.
That distinction matters.
A national price-cut rate approaching last year’s level does not, on its own, establish that the housing market is moving toward a broad price correction.
For housing professionals, a useful question is what is happening around the price cut.
Is inventory growing? Are homes still moving? How are new listings being priced? Where are homes moving to pending? And are those signals moving together or pointing in different directions?
Kansas City has more inventory and fewer price cuts. Minneapolis has more inventory, more price cuts and more transaction activity. San Antonio has more price cuts, fewer new pending contracts and a pending-list median below both its new listing and overall active medians.
Those are three different operating environments, and they call for different decisions.
The national number is the starting point. The combination of local pricing, inventory and demand signals helps housing professionals decide what to do next.
Explore the data
Look deeper in your market with HousingWire Intelligence, which provides housing data at the national, metro and ZIP code levels.
For weekly analysis of mortgage rates, housing demand and the economic forces shaping the market, read Logan Mohtashami’s Housing Market Tracker.
HousingWire Data methodology: This analysis uses weekly single-family housing data through Aug. 7, 2026. Price-cut share reflects the percentage of active listings that have recorded a price reduction. Pending-list median reflects the median list price of homes newly moving to pending and should not be interpreted as a final contract or sale price.
