Advice for Sellers in Today's Market - October 2026

The housing market is sending sellers a pretty clear message right now.

Mortgage applications dropped again last week as rates climbed back to levels we have not seen in nearly three years. Buyers are not just being cautious. Many are looking at the combination of home prices, interest rates and monthly payments and simply saying, “Enough.”

That matters for sellers.

Home prices climbed incredibly fast during and after COVID. Low rates, limited inventory and unusual demand pushed values well beyond normal historical appreciation in many markets. A lot of real equity was created during that period, but some of those gains were also built under market conditions that no longer exist.

Today’s buyer is shopping in a completely different environment.

That does not mean homes cannot sell for good prices. They absolutely can. But sellers need to understand that the market determines value today, not what a neighbor sold for two years ago, what Zillow says, or what the home may have been worth when rates were dramatically lower.

We are seeing larger price reductions, fewer pending sales and buyers becoming extremely selective. Even good homes can sit when the monthly payment does not make sense compared with the alternatives.

For sellers, there are really two paths.

If you have time, you can be patient and work to maximize your price. That requires excellent presentation, marketing, positioning and regular evaluation of the market.

If you need to sell quickly, you have to price for where buyers are today and sometimes where the market appears to be heading rather than where it has been.

There is also a middle ground that should not be ignored. Before simply cutting price, seller-paid closing costs, rate buydowns and other financing incentives can sometimes solve the problem more effectively because buyers today are often shopping by monthly payment as much as purchase price.

This is where good representation matters.

Your agent should be watching the numbers weekly, looking at competing inventory, pendings, price reductions, showing activity and buyer behavior, and then telling you what those numbers actually say.

Sometimes that conversation is uncomfortable.

But the best agents are not there to tell sellers what they want to hear. They are there to help them make good decisions in the market that actually exists.