Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Three in ten. That is how many Denver home sellers with an active listing dropped their asking price during the four weeks ending September 20. Not one in ten. Not two. Three.
That number, 30.9 percent, puts Denver at the top of every metro in the country according to a national listing site's report that came out September 30, 2026. Indianapolis was right behind us at 29.9 percent. And here is the thing about that top spot. It is not the kind you want to lead.
Nationally, 21.1 percent of sellers cut prices in that same stretch. Up from 19.8 percent a year ago, and the highest share for this time of year in a national listing site's records going back to 2022. So the whole country is soft. Denver is just softer than everybody else.
A second report, this one from a national listing site and also dropped September 30, ranked Denver number two for price reductions at 32.1 percent. Only Salt Lake City beat us, at 33.6 percent, with Portland trailing behind. So depending on whose data you read, Denver is either first or a close second in the nation for markdowns. Either way, the message is the same.
Most people hear "price cuts" and assume the market is crashing. It is not. What is actually happening is a giant standoff.
DMAR data for August 2026 has the Denver metro median close price at $594,495. That is essentially flat year over year. Prices are not falling off a cliff. But there were 13,080 active listings sitting on the market, and the median days in the MLS climbed to 27. Homes are just taking longer to move, and sellers who priced off last year's comps are the ones staring at that number every morning.
The softest corner of the whole market is condos and attached homes. Median price there dropped to $370,000, down 4.87 percent year over year, and they are sitting a median of 45 days. Detached homes held up way better. Median of $649,500, moving in 24 days. So if you own a downtown condo, your reality right now is very different from somebody selling a single family in the suburbs.
And then there is the mortgage rate piece, which is really what is squeezing buyers. In mid September, the 30 year rate crossed 7 percent for the first time in over 15 months. By the week of September 19 it hit 7.20 percent, per Denver brokerage tracking. That is roughly a 20 month high. When money gets that expensive, buyers do math, and the math says wait.
You can see it in the pending sales. a national listing site has Denver pending sales down about 15 percent year over year in mid September. That is one of the steepest drops of any major metro in the country. Fewer buyers, more listings, higher rates. That is the recipe for what a national listing site is calling the strongest buyer's market on record.
Here is the part people miss. The old playbook was list high, see what happens, then trim the price in a few weeks if the phone does not ring. Test the ceiling. That worked when buyers were lining up.
It does not work now, and the data spells out why.
a national listing site Senior Economist Asad Khan put it pretty plainly. The sellers moving quickly are the ones getting savvier about pricing correctly from day one. The sellers who price too high are usually working off outdated comps. Read that again. Outdated comps. That means somebody sold three doors down last spring for a number that no longer exists, and you are anchoring to it.
When you overprice and then cut, buyers watch that happen. They see the days on market tick up, they see the reduction, and they smell blood. Now you are negotiating from weakness instead of strength. And you are one of the 30.9 percent, publicly, with the price drop stamped on your listing history.
Price it right on day one and you skip all of that.
The concession numbers back this up too. Nearly half of U.S. homebuyers are now getting seller concessions, per a national listing site. So even the buyers who do show up are asking for rate buydowns, closing cost help, repair credits. If you also mispriced going in, you are getting hit twice.
Look, none of this means you cannot sell. People are closing every single day in this metro. The median home is still trading right around $594,000. It means the strategy changed, and the sellers who accept that early are the ones cashing out clean.
If you are listing this fall, price to today. Not to what your neighbor got in 2025. Not to what you paid plus a wish. To the buyer sitting in front of a 7.20 percent rate right now, doing the math. Some homeowners are choosing to just wait it out, and some are delisting rather than take less. That is a legitimate call if you do not have to move. But if you do have to sell, pretending it is still a seller's market is the most expensive mistake on the board.
And if you are buying? a national listing site's own advice is worth repeating. On any home that has sat more than a month, go ahead and offer below asking. In this market, that is not lowballing. That is just reading the room.
Denver led the country in price cuts this fall. Do not become one of the stats. Price it right the first time.