Published October 7, 2026 in Market Update

85% of sellers paid money back to the buyer this year

By Pamella Haynes

Real estate, market update cleaned

From October 2025 through April 2026, the typical home here sat on the market for 37 days. Sellers got back 94.3% of what they first asked. That sounds close. But those missing points added up at every closing.

And then spring arrived, and the market shifted.

By May, the market looked completely different

May was the turning point. The typical home sold in 11 days. Sellers got 98% of what they first asked. That is nearly 4 full points better than November, and it held through summer. June came in at 15 days. July at 17. August at 19.

The second half of the file shows the change plainly. From April 2026 through October 2026, 221 homes sold. The typical price was $751,000. Days to sell dropped to 16. Sellers got 97.1% of what they first asked.

The gap between the slow half and the fast half is 21 days and nearly 3 points of price. On a $751,000 home, those 3 points are more than $22,000.

Even so, 85.6% of sellers paid money back at closing

Here is the thing the faster market did not fix. Across all 499 sales, 427 sellers paid money back to the buyer at closing. That is 85.6% of them. The typical amount was $19,200.

This is not just sellers who struggled. Seventy-nine homes sold at or over asking price and still paid back $20,000 or more. One home on Ivey Farms Road sold at or over asking, then paid $35,289 back. The sale price looked strong. The net did not.

Sellers who waited the longest paid the most. Homes that took five to six months to sell got back only 86.5% of what they first asked. Homes that took over six months got back 85.5%. The homes that sold in the first month got back 99% of what they first asked, and they did it in a typical 6 days.

The price range also mattered. Homes priced at $1.15M and up were the hardest to sell. Thirteen gave up entirely, a 15.7% failure rate for that range. Among the mid-range groups, the $750K to $850K range had a 3.6% give-up rate and the $850K to $1.15M range had a 3.7% give-up rate, both well below the 8.6% for homes under $600K and the 6.6% for homes priced $600K to $750K. Nearly half of the 110 homes for sale right now have already dropped their price, with a typical cut of $55,950.

What this means if you are selling or buying right now

If you are selling, the clearest lesson in this data is that your first price is your most important decision. Homes that gave up had a typical first asking price of $789,900. Homes that sold had a typical first asking price of $764,500, a difference of $25,400. Right now, nearly half of active listings have already cut their price, with a typical cut of $55,950. At the current pace, all 110 homes for sale would be gone in 2.8 months, which still favors sellers. But that window depends on price.

If you are buying, the concession data works in your favor, even on homes that look firm at asking. Seventy-nine sellers got at or over asking price and still paid $20,000 or more back. It is worth asking. On the rate side, the 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 7.28% as of October 1, 2026, up from 6.34% a year ago, according to Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey. That difference changes a monthly payment meaningfully, so knowing exactly what a home sold for nearby, not just what it listed at, matters more now than it did a year ago.