{"id":76253,"date":"2023-05-25T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/?p=76253"},"modified":"2023-05-24T13:48:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T20:48:32","slug":"home-seller-concessions-april-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/home-seller-concessions-april-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than 2 in 5 Home Sellers Are Making Concessions to Buyers, Nearly Double Last Year\u2019s Share"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sellers are handing out freebies to attract bidders as high mortgage rates dampen homebuying demand. But in some markets, there are so few homes for sale that sellers are bringing in multiple offers and don\u2019t have to offer concessions.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Home sellers gave concessions to buyers in 42.9% of U.S. home sales during the three months ending April 30, up from 25.5% a year earlier, as elevated mortgage rates cooled homebuyer demand. That\u2019s just shy of the 45.6% record-high hit in February.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is according to data submitted by Redfin buyers\u2019 agents across the country, going back through 2020. A concession is recorded when an agent reports a seller provided something that helped reduce the buyers\u2019 total cost of purchasing the home. That could include money toward repairs, closing costs and\/or mortgage-rate buydowns. It does not include situations in which the seller lowered the list price of their home or lowered the price due to negotiation with a buyer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The share of home sellers providing concessions has inched down from February’s peak. That’s due to typical seasonality. Concessions become less common in the early spring because that\u2019s when more buyers typically enter the market, increasing competition and giving sellers more power. But this spring, concessions posted a <\/span>smaller <\/span><\/i>decline than the last two years because high mortgage rates have made it so sellers in cool markets<\/span>\u2013<\/span><\/i>like pricey West Coast places and pandemic boomtowns<\/span>\u2013<\/span><\/i>need to take extra measures to woo and secure buyers. The likelihood of a seller giving a concession dropped 6% from February to April, compared with 18% drops during the same period in 2021 and 2022. This spring\u2019s smaller drop corresponds with less homebuyer competition, with <\/span>46%<\/span><\/a> of offers written by Redfin agents facing a bidding war in April, down from 59% a year earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sellers are throwing in freebies to woo buyers at a higher frequency than last year for several reasons:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n