Real estate is hyperlocal, and in a growing number of markets, buyers are gaining leverage as sellers compete harder to close a deal. Homesellers in Austin, San Antonio, Tampa, Dallas and Denver are cutting prices more aggressively than sellers in other major U.S. housing markets, according to real-time listing data from Parcl Labs.
The divide was stark. More than half of the listings in Austin had received a price cut as of Aug. 6, compared with roughly one-quarter in New York. Listings in Austin were more than twice as likely to receive a price cut.
Austin and New York City sat at opposite ends of Parcl’s Motivated Seller Index among U.S. metros with at least 5,000 active listings. Austin led the group with a score of 7.24, while NYC had the lowest score at 2.95.
The index runs from zero, where sellers are holding firm, to 10, representing “fire sale” conditions. It measures how urgently sellers appear to be seeking a deal by tracking how long homes have been listed, how often and how quickly prices are cut, and the total size of those reductions. Parcl then looks at whether that behavior is limited to a handful of properties or spreading across a larger share of the market.
“We’re looking at the number of price cuts, the velocity, how fast are the price cuts occurring, and then how big those price cuts are,” Parcl Labs co-founder Jason Lewris said in a July conversation with Inman.
The index is updated daily using observed changes to active listings. It is not a prediction of where home prices are heading, Lewris told Inman.
“This is actual seller behavior. They actually cut the prices, or they did a huge price drop, and we’re seeing it spread across the entire population of for-sale supply in that market,” Lewris said.
Here are the five major markets where sellers are the most motivated.
1. Austin, Texas
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- Motivated Seller Index: 7.24
- Listings with price cuts: 53.6%
- Median price cut: 5.3%
- Listed below prior purchase price: 8.7%
- Price change from May 2022 peak: -30.9%
- Active listings: 18,260
Austin had the highest level of seller motivation among metros with at least 5,000 active listings, according to Parcl’s data. More than half of the market’s listings had received a price cut, with a median reduction of 5.3 percent. Nearly 9 percent were listed below the price the seller had previously paid for the property.
Austin was one of three Texas metros among the five most motivated markets. Lewris pointed to homebuilders as a major source of inventory and price-cutting activity across the state. Austin experienced especially rapid home-price growth during the early years of the pandemic, creating what Lewris described as significant volatility compared with markets such as Houston and San Antonio.
“The volatility in Austin was crazy,” Lewris said, adding that the market “ripped out of the gates from COVID” and saw a rapid run-up in prices after the start of the pandemic.
2. San Antonio, Texas
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- Motivated Seller Index: 7.06
- Listings with price cuts: 53.5%
- Median price cut: 5.0%
- Listed below prior purchase price: 7.7%
- Price change from August 2022 peak: -14.0%
- Active listings: 19,945
San Antonio ranked closely behind Austin, with 53.5 percent of its listings receiving price cuts. Lewris said builders have become more aggressive about cutting prices in San Antonio as they attempt to clear newly constructed homes from the market.
During the July conversation, he said approximately 60 percent of new-construction listings in San Antonio had received price cuts, compared with roughly 53 percent of the market’s overall inventory.
“We’re always looking for these differences between what the market is doing and what the various actors contributing supply within those markets are doing,” Lewris said.
3. Tampa, Florida
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- Motivated Seller Index: 7.01
- Listings with price cuts: 50.7%
- Median price cut: 5.6%
- Listed below prior purchase price: 12.5%
- Price change from November 2023 peak: -10.1%
- Active listings: 27,018
Tampa was the only Florida metro among the five most motivated major markets, with just over half of its active listings receiving price cuts. Its median reduction of 5.6 percent was the largest among the five markets. Tampa also had the second-highest share of listings offered below their seller’s previous purchase price, trailing only Denver.
Lewris identified Tampa — and specifically Pinellas County — as one of Florida’s softest markets during the July conversation.
“Tampa is trending higher than Florida” on the share of listings showing an unrealized loss, he said. The Tampa results reflect broader weakness in parts of Florida following a period of rapid home-price appreciation and migration-driven demand.
4. Dallas, Texas
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- Motivated Seller Index: 6.95
- Listings with price cuts: 52.0%
- Median price cut: 4.5%
- Listed below prior purchase price: 8.7%
- Price change from July 2022 peak: -9.5%
- Active listings: 43,490
Dallas had more active listings than any of the five most motivated markets, with nearly 43,500 homes for sale. More than half had received a price reduction, though its median cut of 4.5 percent was the smallest among the group.
Like Austin and San Antonio, Dallas reflects the large role builders play in Texas housing supply. Lewris said nearly 30 percent of all homes for sale across Texas were coming from builders at the time of the July conversation, with that inventory even more concentrated in Austin, San Antonio and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“They are more motivated to clear these units,” Lewris said.
Lewris also pointed to a separate source of seller pressure in smaller North Texas markets near Dallas-Fort Worth. He said investor speculation around proposed data centers had helped drive activity in Sherman and Granbury, where local opposition and uncertainty surrounding some projects appeared to be pushing investors and homeowners back into the market.
5. Denver, Colorado
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- Motivated Seller Index: 6.84
- Listings with price cuts: 50.9%
- Median price cut: 4.4%
- Listed below prior purchase price: 14.6%
- Price change from June 2022 peak: -14.1%
- Active listings: 17,684
Denver rounded out the five most motivated major markets.
Just over half of its listings had received a price cut. Its median reduction was the smallest among the five markets, but Denver had the highest share of properties listed below their seller’s previous purchase price, at 14.6 percent.
Home prices in Denver were down 6.7 percent from a year earlier and 14.1 percent from their June 2022 peak, according to Parcl’s Aug. 6 data. Lewris flagged Denver as a market worth watching during the July conversation, citing its recent decline in prices.
Sellers are holding firmer in the Northeast and Midwest
At the other end of the index, seller motivation remained substantially lower in several Northeastern markets and in Chicago.
Among metros with at least 5,000 listings, New York City had the lowest Motivated Seller Index score at 2.95. Providence followed at 3.15, Buffalo at 3.21, Chicago at 3.58 and Boston at 3.92.
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- New York City: 2.95 MSI, with price cuts on 25.2% of listings
- Providence: 3.15 MSI, with price cuts on 23.2% of listings
- Buffalo: 3.21 MSI, with price cuts on 23% of listings
- Chicago: 3.58 MSI, with price cuts on 24.8% of listings
- Boston: 3.92 MSI, with price cuts on 29.4% of listings
Each was classified as “stubborn” on Parcl’s scale, indicating that sellers were generally holding firmer on price than those in the most motivated markets.
The rankings also illustrate how uneven the housing slowdown has become. In Texas, Florida and Colorado, expanding inventory and aggressive price reductions are placing more pressure on sellers. In much of the Northeast and parts of the Midwest, tighter supply has allowed sellers to resist deeper or more widespread cuts.
