With limited inventory and high mortgage rates, motivated sellers had to be creative to close deals last month, according to new figures out from Redfin. The latest report found that home sellers gave concessions to buyers in 35 percent of U.S. home sales during the three months ending Oct. 31—little changed from 35.9 percent one year earlier but up from 27.6 percent two years earlier.
These concessions include money toward repairs, closing costs and/or mortgage-rate buydowns. It does not include seller’s who lowered the list price or lowered the price due to a negotiation with a buyer.
According to Redfin, some 53,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements were canceled in September, equal to 16.3 percent of homes that went under contract that month—the highest percentage since October 2022, when mortgage rates surpassed 7 percent. September is the most recent month for which purchase cancellation data is available.