When is it time to lower the price of your house? Here’s how to tell

Once you decide to list your home for sale, it’s important to set the right asking price from the start. But sometimes, even if you think the list price is appropriate, your home might still linger on the market for longer than you expected. How long is too long? Here’s how to figure out whether it’s time to consider a price reduction to attract a buyer.

When to lower the price on your house

You’ve enlisted the aid of a skilled real estate agent who’s performed a thorough comparative market analysis to determine the value of your home. You’ve listed the property at what you both believe is an accurate price, and you’ve hosted many showings, but so far, no one has made an offer.

So why hasn’t your home sold?

“Pricing is usually the reason,” says Gordy Marks of RE/MAX Northwest in Kirkland, Washington. “Most other issues can be overlooked if your price is right.” The condition of the home might also explain why you’ve received no offers: If it needs upgrades or repairs, or lacks curb appeal, buyers may be turned off.

You could also find yourself with no offers if you use the wrong marketing strategy. “If a home doesn’t have the right photos or marketing, or isn’t positioned in its local market properly, it may not sell,” says Maria Quattrone at RE/MAX @ Home in Philadelphia.

The local absorption rate — the rate at which available homes are sold during a specific time frame — might also affect your ability to sell quickly and for top dollar.

“If there’s a large volume of inventory, your home may sit on the market for a bit,” says Peggie McQueen, a broker associate with LPT Realty in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. “However, that’s highly unlikely in many areas given the current state of the real estate market.”

How long should a house be on the market before you reduce the price?

If you do decide to reduce the price of your home, experts agree you should do it relatively quickly — potentially within two weeks of initially listing it for sale. That’s especially true with inventory as low as it has been lately.

The exact period of time you should wait also depends on indicators in your local housing market, including average days on market for homes listed in your area. For a point of reference, in May 2024, existing-home listings in the U.S. remained on the market for an average of just 24 days, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Your real estate agent can help you determine the best timing for your market.

“You’re almost always going to get the most activity on any property in the first 21 days on the market, so you don’t want to miss that window,” says Quattrone.

“Do a hard reevaluation with your broker on pricing by no later than the 30-day mark,” says Ruth Shin, founder and CEO of PropertyNest in Brooklyn, New York. “You don’t want to wait too long, or your listing will become much less attractive to buyers.”

Dustin Fox of Fox Homes in Fairfax, Virginia recommends going even faster: “We recommend a price adjustment after 10 days on the market,” Fox says. “This gives you time for two open houses on back-to-back weekends. Don’t reduce the price too late, because buyers then look at your days on the market as an opportunity to save money and lower their offers.”

How many times to cut the list price, and by how much

Some real estate agents suggest adjusting your asking price as many times as needed in order to make the sale — but at strategic intervals. “No one likes to do price reductions, but you may have to do more than one,” says Quattrone. “As the number of days on the market increases, so can the need for price adjustments.”

Shin advises making no more than three price reductions. “Any more than three will cause buyers to think something is wrong with the property,” she says.

The amount you should reduce your asking price requires careful consideration. If your home was originally priced on the high side, it may not be unreasonable to reduce it by 4 or even 7 percent, Shin says.

“You probably want to reduce by more than 3 percent, at minimum,” says Marks, “but I would pay attention to what it takes to get to the next lower price.” For example, say your original list price was $420,000. If you were to reduce that by 3 percent, you’d bring the price down to $407,400. Dropping the price to just below $400,000, however — say, $399,900 — could get more attention from shoppers, because your home will now appear in online searches for properties listed below $400,000.

If your initial price was close to fair market value, a more incremental drop could do the trick — anything from 0.5 percent to 3 percent.

Overall, it’s best to determine ahead of time the absolute lowest price you’re willing to accept, so that you can make price adjustments as necessary within that range.

4 signs your asking price is too high

Here are four indicators that your asking price might need lowering:

• Little traffic and no offers: This is the most obvious red flag that your home is overpriced. You’ll likely need to adjust downward to get potential buyers interested.
• Good traffic but lowball offers: On the other hand, “if you’re receiving good showing traffic but all low-price offers, that’s a sign you’re very close to market value and a smaller price adjustment may be necessary,” says Fox.
• Good traffic but negative reactions: “If buyers coming to look at your home actually make comments about the price, you know you’ve likely set it too high,” says Shin. “An easy way to find out if your price is way off is to do a fresh search of comparable homes in the same area. You’ll see if your price is higher, around the same or lower than those comparable properties.”
• On the market longer than average: Check with your agent about the average number of days homes spend on the market in your area. If your listing has been up significantly longer than average, that may be a sign to reduce the price.

FAQs

• How do I know when to drop the price on my home?

  Your agent can help you figure out if lowering your asking price is necessary, and if so, when to do it and by how much. A few signs to look out for include receiving no offers or lowball offers, few in-person viewings, and the home staying on the market for longer than normal for your area.

• What is the average price reduction on a home?

  The amount a home seller will reduce their home’s asking price depends on many factors, including the area’s median prices, what comparable homes nearby are selling for and the length of time the home has been on the market. A 2019 Zillow study found that the average price cut was 2.9 percent of the home’s list price; agents recommend anywhere from 0.5 to 7 percent, depending on how off-the-mark the home’s initial price was.

• Why am I getting showings but no offers on my home?

  If you are seeing good traffic from potential buyers but no offers, or only low offers, your home may be overpriced for your area. Buyers may also see problems with its condition, or perhaps the staging doesn’t help them picture themselves living there. Talk to your agent about whether it’s worth making a price adjustment or a few small improvements to up your home’s appeal.