Nearly two-thirds of homebuyers scored a discount in 2025 

For the nearly two-thirds of buyers who paid below list price last year, the discounts were deeper than usual.

Homebuyers who negotiated a lower price in 2025 scored a 7.9% reduction, on average, according to a new report from Redfin. That's the highest percentage discount since 2012. 

It continues a trend that began a few years ago when mortgage rates started rising significantly, affordability weakened and the housing market slowed to a crawl. The average discount from 2022-2024 was between 7.5% and 7.7% — well above the 6.3% discount seen during the red-hot market of 2020.

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, said home prices have simply remained too high in recent years given what's happened to mortgage rates.

"Buyers are the ones that ultimately set the price, and if a home only has one offer, the buyer can submit a bid lower than asking, and the seller will usually accept because the only other options are to keep waiting in the hopes that the market improves, or delist and stay put in the home," Fairweather said in an email.

With buyers outnumbering sellers in many markets, single-offer scenarios may be increasingly common.

Majority of buyers paid below asking in 2025 (and condos were a hot spot)

Continuing a four-year trend, the share of homebuyers who paid below list price rose last year, reaching 62.2% — the highest percentage since 2019. In 2021, prior to the jump in mortgage rates, the share of those paying above list price (45.4%) was higher than those getting a discount (37.8%). That's the only year since at least 2012 to see more overpayers than underpayers.

Condominium buyers scored particularly large discounts last year: 68.1% paid less than the list price, and they also enjoyed the deepest discounts — 8.1% on average — according to the report. That could be due in part to lower demand, however, as HOA fees and insurance costs have soared in some condo-heavy markets.

Because discounts are on the rise in many markets, buyers — and their agents — shouldn't be afraid to consider homes slightly above their budget since they may be able to negotiate a lower price, according to Asad Khan, a senior economist at Redfin.

"This marks a reversal from the pandemic homebuying frenzy, when house hunters were advised to search for homes below their budget because fierce bidding wars were causing properties to sell far above the asking price," Khan said in the report.

Looking ahead to the spring and summer selling seasons, Fairweather expects sellers will be pricing their properties more realistically since they can see what comparable homes sold for in 2025 — something that may be especially true for sellers who are giving the market another try after delisting their home last year.

So what should buyer agents be looking at when advising their clients? 

Days on market, Fairweather said: "If a home has been on the market for more than two weeks, that's a good sign the seller is going to be willing to accept an offer below list."

Inventory, affordability contributing to below-ask deals

In addition to the general shift toward a buyers market, another factor driving up discounts is the challenge of pricing homes correctly when market dynamics are in a state of flux and supply and demand vary considerably by region, the Redfin report noted. 

In several Florida metros, for example — where the share of for-sale listings has outpaced the rest of the country —  buyers are scoring some of the best deals. Of the five markets offering the biggest discounts to buyers who paid below list price, three were in the Sunshine State: West Palm Beach (10.9% discount), Fort Lauderdale (10.3%) and Miami (9.8%).

Buyers in just four of the 50 most populous metros paid above the asking price in 2025, according to Redfin, and three were in the California Bay Area: San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland (the fourth was Newark, NJ).  

Affordability also continues to be an issue, as many buyers simply can't pay the list price. A new Bright MLS survey found that 92% of Americans believe housing affordability is a problem, with low incomes and high borrowing costs cited as the top barriers to buying a home today.

"Consumers are very clear about what they see as the core of the affordability problem," said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. "From their perspective, incomes haven't kept up and higher mortgage rates have further reduced purchasing power."