The US housing market is the most buyer-friendly on record, and sellers are feeling it
Nearly half of all US home sales now include a seller concession, the highest August share on record, as the most buyer-friendly housing market in more than a decade squeezes sellers from coast to coast.
Home sellers granted concessions to buyers in 44.7% of US home sales in August, up from 42.6% in August 2025 and the highest figure for any August since at least 2020, according to new data published by Redfin, the real estate brokerage powered by Rocket.
The analysis covers the rolling three-month period ending August 31. Redfin defines a concession as any seller contribution that reduces a buyer's total cost of purchase — including money toward repairs, closing costs, or mortgage-rate buydowns — and excludes outright list-price reductions from the count.
The data reflects a market that has shifted decisively toward buyers. Redfin identified August as the strongest buyer's market in its records dating to 2013, with inventory elevated and purchase competition subdued across most of the country.
For mortgage brokers, that shift is changing what transactions look like. Rate buydowns and closing-cost credits are increasingly the mechanism through which sellers compete for offers, rather than price cuts alone.
"Buyers know they can be picky. They're asking for every concession under the sun," said Amanda Peterson, a Redfin Premier agent in Dallas, Texas.
"That's especially true for newly built homes. Builders are offering $10,000 or $20,000 in concessions, buying down mortgage rates and throwing in appliances. I had clients walk away from a home they loved because the pantry was too small and they didn't like the laundry room — even after the sellers offered to alter the floor plan. There are so many homes for sale that buyers are holding out for one that checks every box."
Sun Belt sellers bear the brunt
The most elevated concession rates are concentrated in the Sun Belt, where pandemic-era construction booms left markets awash in supply that demand has not kept pace with. Eight of the ten metros with the highest concession rates in Redfin's 29-market analysis are in the South or West.
Atlanta, Georgia leads all tracked markets, with sellers offering concessions in 72.8% of August 2026 transactions, nearly three-quarters of all home sales in the metro.
Charlotte, North Carolina (67.9%), Phoenix, Arizona (67.4%), Las Vegas, Nevada (66.7%), and Raleigh, North Carolina (66.3%) follow closely.
Nashville, Tennessee and Houston, Texas — each with sellers outnumbering buyers by more than two-to-one — are among the five strongest buyer's markets in the country, per Redfin.
Phoenix, Charlotte, and Riverside, California recorded the largest year-over-year concession-rate increases, with Phoenix's share rising 15.3 percentage points.
At the other end, San Jose, California, where just 4.2% of sellers provided concessions in August, and New York City (5.7%) remain largely insulated. San
Francisco is one of just five seller's markets left in the US, sustained by demand from the city's AI industry. San Jose, New York, and Chicago are effectively balanced markets, where buyers carry too little leverage to extract meaningful concessions.
| Metro | Rate | YoY (pp) |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, GA | 72.8% | +3.7 |
| Charlotte, NC | 67.9% | +9.3 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 67.4% | +15.3 |
| Las Vegas, NV | 66.7% | +6.0 |
| Raleigh, NC | 66.3% | +5.1 |
| US national avg. | 44.7% | +2.1 |
| Metro | Rate | YoY (pp) |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose, CA | 4.2% | −6.0 |
| New York, NY | 5.7% | −0.9 |
| San Francisco, CA | 18.6% | −1.0 |
| Chicago, IL | 21.9% | +3.7 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 25.5% | +0.2 |
| US national avg. | 44.7% | +2.1 |
When concessions and price cuts collide
A rising share of sellers is not only granting concessions, they are simultaneously cutting prices.
Redfin found that 15.8% of homes sold nationally in August carried both a price reduction and a seller concession, up incrementally from 15.6% a year earlier and the highest August share on record.
For brokers operating in softer markets, the combination of a reduced list price alongside a closing-cost credit or rate buydown can substantially lower a client's cost of entry without requiring any additional capital.
As home sales held on course for a second-half recovery with inventory building steadily, conditions became more amenable to buyers negotiating from a position of strength. That shift shows up in financing patterns, too: down payments fell to their lowest levels since 2021 as buyers redirected cash toward closing costs — behavior that creates a natural opening for seller-paid concessions.
And as home-purchase cancellation rates plateaued in April when sellers showed greater flexibility, the underlying mechanism was largely the same: sellers choosing concessions over losing deals entirely.
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