Home Showings Are Down 20%. FSBO Sellers, Here's My Take
Home Showings Are Down 20%. FSBO Sellers, Here's My Take
There's a number in this week's housing news that should make every seller sit up. It's not the mortgage rate — although that's bad enough at 7.4%. It's the foot traffic. Home showings dropped 20% in September compared to a year ago, according to lockbox data cited by Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors' chief economist, at his press conference this week.
Think about that. Inventory is back to pre-COVID levels. There are more homes for sale. And 20% fewer buyers are walking through the doors. Yun said it plainly: "Low sales activity is clearly due to lack of demand, not limited supply. It's no longer a supply issue. Higher mortgage rates are reducing foot traffic."
Let me put the payment shock in real dollars, because that's exactly what your buyer is calculating. On a $300,000 mortgage, 7.4% means about $2,075 a month in principal and interest. A year ago at 6.27%, it was about $1,853. That's $222 more, every single month. That's a car payment. It's why purchase mortgage applications are running 16% below last year, per the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Your competition is cutting prices
Here's the part that matters most for you. Nearly 21% of active listings cut their asking price in September — the biggest September share since 2018, per Realtor.com. That's one in five sellers blinking.
And even when buyers do show up, deals are wobbling. NAR's September confidence survey found 16% of contracts got delayed — up from 14% in August — and 7% of contracts fell apart entirely over the last three months, versus 6% a year ago. Yun reckons buyers are waiting longer to lock their rates and getting hit with higher payments than they expected at the closing table.
My take: price it like you mean it
Yun had a message for sellers this week: be realistic about local market conditions, because you might need price discounts and incentives to attract buyers. Translation: the market doesn't care what you think your home is worth.
In a normal market, an overpriced listing sits and waits. In this market, an overpriced listing doesn't even get visited. With 20% fewer showings to go around, the homes that earn the visit are the ones priced to make a buyer pick up the phone.
This is where selling it yourself turns into an advantage instead of a handicap. A listed seller has to cover a listing agent's commission, so dropping the price by $10,000 costs them more than $10,000 out of their pocket. You don't have that problem. You can be the sharpest price on the street and still walk away with more equity than your neighbor who listed at $25,000 above you and is now cutting.
Don't be one of the one-in-five cutting in panic mode after weeks of silence. Price it like it's the market you actually have, not the one from last May. First impressions count double when buyers are this scarce — great photos, a clean listing, and a price that says "this one's worth a visit."
And have a plan for the wobble. With contracts getting delayed and 7% falling through, be the seller who can flex — a little help on closing costs, some breathing room on the closing date. You'd rather close at a fair price than re-list at a lower one.
Yun says he doesn't see rates dropping in any major way — 7% plus is the new normal for now. So waiting for the market to rescue you isn't a strategy. Being the best-priced, best-presented option in your neighborhood is.
You can list your home — free 15-day trial, then a one-time fee from $49 — no commission, no clock ticking while buyers make up their minds. And if you want to see what 7.4% does to a buyer's monthly payment, run it through our mortgage calculator. Yesterday I wrote about pending home sales hitting a 12-year low — today's showing data confirms the direction.
Sources: NAR, Oct 2026; ConsumerAffairs / Freddie Mac, Oct 16 2026.