From buyer-friendly Detroit to seller-dominated Hartford, negotiating power varies widely across the country’s housing markets.
ST. LOUIS, July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The typical home now sells below its list price in 41 of the 50 most populous U.S. metros, according to a new report from Best Interest Financial and Clever Real Estate, a St. Louis-based real estate company.
The nine metros where the typical home sells above list price are:
- San Francisco, CA
- Hartford, CT
- San Jose, CA
- Boston, MA
- New York, NY
- Milwaukee, WI
- Richmond, VA
- Providence, RI
- Chicago, IL
Buyers have the least negotiating power in Hartford, where only 10.6% of listings are discounted and homes sell for about 104.3% of the list price.
Conversely, buying power is growing most actively across the Midwest. The region claims eight of the 15 metros with the biggest year-over-year jumps in price cuts: Cincinnati, Louisville, Detroit, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.
The cities where buyers have the most negotiating power are:
- Detroit, MI
- San Antonio, TX
- Austin, TX
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Houston, TX
- Tampa, FL
- Memphis, TN
- Dallas, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Philadelphia, PA
No market favors buyers more than Detroit, where about 20% of homes carry a reduced price and sellers trim an average of 6.2% off the asking price, the second-largest cut of any city studied. Detroit’s median sale price is $224,308, the lowest in the report.
Only San Francisco sees deeper discounts than Detroit, averaging 6.3%. However, just 10.2% of its listings are discounted, the smallest share of the 50 metros.
Texas also stands out, with all four major metros ranking among the most favorable markets. San Antonio has discounted more listings (28.2%) than any other major city.
Buyer-friendly conditions, however, may be short-lived. Over the past year, price-drop activity cooled in more than half of the metros studied, while the sale-to-list-price ratio climbed in more than a third.
Those shifts suggest leverage could be creeping back toward sellers, and the buyers most likely to strike a deal are the ones who act now.
Read the full report at: https://bestinterest.com/research/is-it-a-buyers-or-a-sellers-market
About Best Interest Financial
At Best Interest Financial, borrowers come first, with personalized guidance and tailored mortgage options. Since 2024, hundreds of families have trusted Best Interest Financial to achieve their dream of homeownership. Now an affiliate of Clever Real Estate, a free agent-matching service that’s saved consumers over $240 million on Realtor fees since 2017, Best Interest shares a mission to connect people with the best solutions for every step of their real estate journey.
About Clever Real Estate
Clever Real Estate‘s content reaches over 10 million readers annually, and its nationwide agent matching service has a 5-star Trustpilot rating across 4,360+ customer reviews. Since launching in 2017, Clever has reached over $16.6 billion in real estate sold, matched over 246,000 customers with realtors, and saved consumers over $240 million on commission fees. Clever’s network spans over 13,000 agents across all 50 states.
CONTACT:
Nicole Lehman
Clever Real Estate
419726@email4pr.com
724-719-0406
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SOURCE Best Interest Financial
