A costly mistake is tripping up home sellers in 2026—and it starts on day one

A Realtor.com report warns that today’s buyers have more leverage, making price missteps more expensive. In March, the average single-family home sold about 1% below its final listing price, with the four-week window—when offers compete or prices are cut—pivot

When someone decides to list a home, the first days can set the entire tone of the sale. In 2026, the wrong price at the start doesn’t just delay a deal—it can quietly take leverage away from the seller.

Realtor.com’s latest report. released Thursday. points to a clear shift away from the aggressive bidding wars that defined parts of the 2021 and 2022 housing frenzy. In March. the average single-family home sold for nearly 1% below its final listing price. a sign that buyers now have more room to negotiate.

“We’ve gone from a market where sellers could price aggressively and still get above asking, to one where overpricing has real consequences,” Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement. “Buyers have more leverage than they’ve had in years.”

Berner’s takeaway is direct: getting the listing price right from the start matters more than ever. He singled out the four-week mark as especially critical—when sellers may be entertaining competing offers, or when they’ll face the reality that they need to cut the listing price.

The report found that homes that sold at the four-week point closed 1.8 percentage points higher than the average home sold during that month. Sellers also did better when homes went into contract during the first two weeks on the market.

But the longer a home sits, the more it can slip into a weaker negotiating position. Realtor.com’s findings show that sellers fared worst when homes sold 18 weeks after being listed, with those homes closing 1.3 percentage points below the monthly average.

“Today, an overpriced home doesn’t just sit—it gets stale, loses leverage, and sells for less than it would have if it had been priced right from the start,” Berner said.

That pattern carries a specific warning for anyone who treats a listing like a waiting game—because time itself is becoming part of the cost.

The sequence is hard to ignore across today’s data: quicker contracts and earlier sales line up with higher closing outcomes, while extended listings drag results below the monthly average. Even small percentage gaps can add up when a sale stretches for months rather than weeks.

For condo and townhome sellers, the softness is sharper. Listing prices for condos have fallen 6% since 2022, and the average condo is selling for 2.1% below its final listing price.

The report also describes how the West and South—cities and metro areas that were particularly hot during the pandemic-era housing surge—have cooled. Realtor.com found that many metro areas in these regions now have more homes for sale than in 2019. and competition among buyers appears to be one reason sale prices have dipped below asking prices.

In the Northeast, the picture is different. It’s the only region of the U.S. where the average home is still selling for more than the asking price. But the report suggests that the same leverage shift could soon reach the Midwest. where sellers tend to have more bargaining power because the inventory of available homes hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“Where you list matters as much as how you price,” Berner said. “Sellers in the Northeast still have the wind at their backs. In the Sun Belt, the calculus has flipped—buyers have options and they know it.”

Realtor.com home sellers housing market listing price buyer leverage single-family homes condos Sun Belt Northeast Midwest housing inventory March data