If you have been watching home listings in your area and wondering whether prices are actually coming down or whether that is wishful thinking, the data says you are not imagining it. The median home listing price has now fallen year over year for 37 consecutive weeks, according to Realtor.com's weekly housing trends report published October 1, 2026, covering the week ending September 26, 2026. The national median sat at $419,000 for that week, down 1.4 percent from the same week a year earlier.
That is a long stretch of consistent softening, and it comes even though mortgage rates have been climbing rather than falling. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.28 percent as of October 1, 2026, up from 7.03 percent the week before, according to Freddie Mac. In a market where rates usually move prices, this combination, higher rates and lower asking prices, tells you something about how much leverage has shifted toward the people doing the buying.
More Homes to Choose From
Part of the reason prices keep drifting down is that there is simply more for sale. Active listings were up 6.3 percent year over year as of that same week, according to Realtor.com, the fastest pace of inventory growth in at least six months. That marks a step up from the prior week's 5.8 percent gain, and it means the number of homes sitting on the market has been accelerating, not leveling off. Realtor.com's researchers note that part of the increase reflects a tough comparison against fall 2025, when falling rates briefly warmed up that market, but the trend itself has been building for months.
Even with that larger pool of inventory, Realtor.com also found that the typical home listing spent two fewer days on the market than it did a year earlier, a wider gap than the one-day edge seen in each of the two previous weeks. That might sound like it contradicts the softer price trend, but it does not. Sellers who are serious about moving appear to be pricing their homes to sell rather than testing the market with an ambitious number, and buyers are responding to realistically priced listings. If you are watching a particular home sit for a week or two without much interest, that is often a sign the asking price has not yet caught up with what buyers are actually willing to pay.
What the Price Trend Actually Means for You
If you are planning to buy in the coming months, the 37-week stretch of year-over-year price declines matters more than any single week's number. It tells you this is not a blip, it is a sustained shift in how sellers and their agents are approaching pricing. Realtor.com's research team also pointed out that price per square foot fell even faster than the headline price figure in September, which suggests the discounting is not just happening on larger or unusual homes, it is showing up across the board.
None of this means you should expect prices to keep falling at the same pace indefinitely, and nobody can tell you with confidence where they will be six months from now. What the data does support is that, right now, you have more negotiating room than buyers had a year ago. With inventory climbing and prices still sliding on a year-over-year basis, you are less likely to find yourself in a bidding war over a reasonably priced listing than you would have been during the tightest years of this market.
That extra room is worth using. When you make an offer, you do not have to assume the listed price is the floor. Ask your agent to pull recent comparable sales, not just the asking prices of homes still on the market, so you can see what buyers are actually paying rather than what sellers are hoping to get. If a home has been listed for several weeks without a price cut, that is useful information too, it may mean the seller has not yet adjusted to current conditions, which can be an opening for a lower offer or added concessions like covering part of your closing costs.
The flip side of a softening price trend is that it can take longer to find a home that checks every box, since sellers with less urgency may simply wait rather than negotiate. Patience is part of the strategy right now. You are not under the same pressure to make a fast decision that buyers faced when inventory was tight and every reasonably priced home drew multiple offers within days. Use that slower pace to get a second showing, bring in an inspector earlier in the process, or simply sit with a decision overnight instead of rushing to beat competing offers that may not materialize the way they once did.
Watch the Trend, Not Just One Week
Weekly housing data can bounce around for reasons that have nothing to do with the underlying market, a holiday, a batch of new listings in one region, or a handful of expensive properties skewing the median. That is exactly why the 37-week streak matters more than any individual data point. It is a consistent signal stretched across most of this year, not a one-off reading, and it has held up through multiple swings in mortgage rates along the way.
If you are actively house hunting, keep an eye on your specific market rather than only the national figures. Realtor.com's data also shows the slowdown in days on market is not uniform, homes are moving faster in the West while sitting longer in the Midwest and Northeast, according to the same report. Ask your agent for local inventory and price-cut trends in the specific neighborhoods you are considering, since national averages can mask real differences block to block, and a market that looks soft nationally can still be competitive in a specific school district or walkable downtown.
Mortgage rates remain the other half of the affordability equation, and they are not moving in buyers' favor the way prices are. That makes it worth running the numbers carefully on what a given home actually costs you each month, not just what it is listed for, before you decide how much room you have to negotiate on price versus how much you need the seller to cover in other ways, like a rate buydown or closing cost credit. A lender who can walk you through both scenarios side by side will give you a clearer picture than focusing on the sticker price alone.
