Home sellers are lowering their price and helping buyers to make a deal in a stagnant market

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Not long ago, a homeowner in America might reasonably wager they could sell their home fairly quickly, and for more than their asking price. That's unlikely to be a winning bet now.

Across the nation, a stagnant housing market is leaving many sellers in limbo, unable to relocate for a new job, buy their next home to accommodate a growing family, or follow through with other major life decisions that necessitate selling their home.

Sellers who have the option to pull their listing off the market are generally doing so. Those who don't are under increased pressure to lower their asking price and also kick in thousands of dollars toward a buyer’s costs, real estate agents say.

The trend marks a stark turn from earlier this decade, when sellers often received well above their asking price as home shoppers empowered by rock-bottom mortgage rates fueled a buying frenzy that sent home prices soaring.

Now, the market is stalled by surging mortgage rates, the compounding effect from years of rising home prices and an economic outlook dimmed by high inflation. Those factors are putting homeownership out of reach for many buyers while others delay a purchase and hope for more favorable conditions, perhaps in the spring.

Sellers easily outnumber buyers and are stuck between uneasy choices: be more aggressive on price cuts and concessions to woo buyers, or hold out longer, even if it means delaying major life plans.

"The dynamic has shifted back toward more of what we call buyers’ markets rather than sellers’ markets,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial. “(That) means you might have to reduce your price, you might give a concession to get your home sold, it might have to stay on market longer.”

With her three kids no longer living at home, Liz Suder decided to sell her four-bedroom, 3.5-bath house in Murphy, Texas, about 20 miles outside of Dallas, and buy a smaller place.

“I was waiting to sell the house before I started looking,” said Suder, 56. “I didn’t want to have two mortgages.”

Suder wound up putting her life on hold for more than a year. The finance director, who owned the home for 21 years, initially put the house on the market in April 2025 for $750,000. Six months later, despite lowering the price several times, the home still hadn’t sold and she took it off the market.

Suder relisted the home in February for $725,000 ahead of the spring homebuying season. But it wasn't until recently that a home shopper agreed to buy it for $650,000. Suder sweetened the deal by kicking in $9,000 toward repairs.

“I never expected it to take a full year, and for me to have to reduce the price by that much,” she said.

Rick Ganga needs to find a buyer for his home in the coastal city of Blaine, Washington, before he can begin the next chapter in his life.

Ganga is going through a divorce that requires the home to be sold. He's had multiple showings of the three-bedroom, 2.5-bath house since it went on the market on June 1 for $825,000. Lowering the price to just under $800,000 hasn't helped.

“There’s (been) no offers, virtually zero traffic,” said Ganga, 58.

Ganga said some sellers in his neighborhood have dropped their asking price by $100,000 or more, but because he’s only owned the home since 2022, he hasn’t built up enough equity to be able to lower the price any further.

“That’s not anything I’m going to entertain,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Until the home sells, the operations manager has little choice but to set aside plans to transfer with his company to another state.

“I honestly believe that it will probably sit until spring or summer of next year,” he said.

After briefly dipping below 6% in February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage surged as high as 7.4% this month, its highest level in nearly three years. The upward march in rates has stifled U.S. home sales.

With many sellers lowering their asking price, the national median home listing price declined in September from a year earlier for the 11th month in a row, dropping 1.2% to $419,250, according to Realtor.com. All told, about 21% of listings in September had their initial price lowered, a four-year high.

It’s not unusual for home shoppers to ask for — and receive — money from sellers to put toward their closing costs. Higher mortgage rates are also giving buyers leverage to press sellers for money to buy down their rate for a few years or for the life of the loan, reducing their overall borrowing costs.

“It’s sort of like an indicator of where the market is right now, with buyers gaining leverage at the expense of sellers, and sellers doing more now to meet buyers halfway,” said Jake Krimmel, a senior economist at Realtor.com.

That's good news for home shoppers, but may not be enough to overcome the affordability hurdles keeping many prospective homebuyers out of the market.

Consider, last month there were about 63% more sellers than homebuyers across the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, according to an analysis by Redfin. And the number of buyers — roughly 929,000 — represented the fewest on record dating back to 2013, while the tally of sellers jumped to its highest level since 2020.

That considerable imbalance between buyers and sellers means Ethan Butner may have longer to wait before he sells his home in Troutdale, Oregon, about 16 miles east of Portland.

Butner, a service manager, already has an offer accepted on a new, more spacious home for him and his family near Portland. First he needs to find a buyer for his three-bathroom, two-bath house so he can put the proceeds toward the new home.

So far, it isn’t going well. The house has been on the market more than two months for $480,000. Butner slashed $30,000 off his asking price, but that generated only one offer, which fell through.

Butner recently installed a new hot water heater and dishwasher, and replaced the flooring in hopes of making the property more attractive.

“It’s been a roller coaster of emotion for myself, my family, especially my fiancée,′ said Butner, 36. “We’ve had this vision of being in our own home and all the kids having their own rooms and all the good stuff that comes along with that. We definitely feel stuck at the moment.”

Liz Suder poses for a photo in front of her former home that was sold in Murphy, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Liz Suder poses for a photo in former neighborhood n Murphy, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Liz Suder poses for a photo in front of her former home that was sold in Murphy, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

FILE - A House For Sale sign is displayed in front of a home in Evanston, Ill., Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians began voting in Sunday’s polarizing presidential runoff between incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, a contest that will determine whether the U.S. will significantly expand its growing influence in Latin America.

Polls ahead of the vote showed the two candidates, who need more than 50% of the vote to become Brazil’s next leader in January, in a neck-and-neck race. The election pits the left-of-center veteran politician Lula against Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and the son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Flávio Bolsonaro bested Lula by more than 2.2 million votes in the first round of the election earlier this month. More than 33 million voters out of nearly 160 million did not turn out.

The difference between the two candidates is stark. Bolsonaro and Lula have opposing ideological views on issues ranging from U.S.-Brazil relations and climate change to social welfare.

A win for Bolsonaro would signify a pivot to the right by Latin America's most populous country and its largest economy in a year when Trump allies have notched victories in Chile, Peru and Colombia.

A victory for Lula would leave Brazil and Mexico, which is the region’s second most populous country and led by President Claudia Sheinbaum, with left-of-center leaders.

In many ways, Brazil’s runoff vote resembles a rematch between the country’s two polarized political forces that trigger passion as much as loathing. Four years ago, Lula beat Bolsonaro’s father by the narrowest margin since the country’s return to democracy in 1985. Polls suggest that this election will be even closer.

Lula, who first governed the country between 2003 and 2010, has faced a tough reelection battle because of concerns about the cost of living and security. Bolsonaro made a tough-on-crime approach the cornerstone of his campaign and pledged to bring down food costs.

Both have been hit by corruption suspicions involving family members and allies, with Bolsonaro implicated in a sprawling scandal rocking Brazil. Lula spent more than a year in prison on corruption convictions that were eventually annulled.

Bolsonaro’s admission that he accepted about $12 million from disgraced former banker Daniel Vorcaro to produce a film on his father’s life has cast a shadow over his campaign. He is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in connection with the case.

As Bolsonaro voted at a school in Rio de Janeiro around 8 a.m., Bolsonaro's supporters shouted “Lula, thief, your place is in prison” while Lula’s supporters chanted in his support.

“The time of real change has arrived,” Bolsonaro told journalists. “Brazil can’t go on another four years on its current trajectory.”

In the lead-up to the vote, Lula frequently portrayed Bolsonaro, whose father is under house arrest for attempting a coup, as a threat to democracy. Bolsonaro has promised to seek an amnesty for his father if elected.

The next president will name at least three Supreme Court justices out of 11 in his next term due to upcoming retirements. Bolsonaro has long taken aim at the country's top court — which has been rocked by a corruption scandal — and promised to push for judiciary reform.

Lula, trying to lure undecided voters, has invested in costly incentives since he lost the first round of voting. His government’s most recent moves have been endorsing a debt relief program for small businesses and promising free public transportation on weekends. A win for the incumbent came with the Senate's approval of the six-day working week — a popular proposal backed by the government.

Lula has criticized the U.S. president before Brazil's election, speaking about the risks of U.S. intervention in Brazilian elections after the Trump administration imposed high tariffs against Brazilian exports, sanctioned a Supreme Court justice who chaired the investigation that ended up resulting in the sentencing of Jair Bolsonaro and classified drug-trafficking groups as foreign terrorist organizations, which experts say may have been intended to make Lula look soft on crime.

Flávio Bolsonaro has touted his proximity to the White House and insisted that Brazil needs to strike better deals with the Trump administration, including the rare minerals economy. Brazil estimates that its deposits hold up to 21 million tons, second only to China. He denies he's being helped by the U.S. government.

Voting in Brazil is conducted electronically and the result is usually available within hours after polling stations close at 5 p.m. in Brasilia.

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Voters line up at a polling station during the presidential runoff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Voters line outside a polling station up during the presidential runoff in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

A supporter of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is seeking reelection, lines up at a polling station during a presidential runoff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro and his wife Fernanda Bolsonaro give a thumbs during the runoff presidential election in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Voters wait to cast their ballots during a presidential runoff in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Lucas Landau)

Red T-shirts depicting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, and yellow T-shirts depicting opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro hang for sale outside a building ahead of Brazil's presidential runoff election in Autazes, Amazonas state, Brazil, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, who is running for reelection, and his running mate Geraldo Alckmin raise their arms in unison at the end of their final campaign rally, a day ahead of the presidential runoff election in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, center, leaves after his final campaign rally a day ahead of the presidential runoff election in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Supporters of opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro cheer during his final campaign rally a day ahead of the presidential runoff election in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Lucas Landau)

A girl standing on a man's shoulders reaches out amid a crowd of supporters of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, during his final campaign rally, a day ahead of the presidential runoff election in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)