Realtor.com: New-home Price Cuts Outpace Resales as Builders Boost Discounts

Realtor.com: New-build Discounts Overtake Resale Reductions

Realtor.com’s Quarterly New Construction Insights reports that nearly one in five newly built homes sees a price cut in late 2025, overtaking the resale market for the first time in recent history. The share of existing homes with reductions is 18.3%, while discounts on new construction climb to almost 20%, signaling builders are increasingly competing on price amid affordability pressures and elevated resale inventory, the report says.

Builders Amplify Price Cuts to Compete with Resale Inventory

Builders are responding to a more competitive market by leaning on price adjustments to accelerate sales and clear backlogs, Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, says. New-construction price cuts concentrate in markets with high new-build activity, but the trend spreads across regions as builders face stronger-than-expected resale competition. The report notes that while overall new-home median listing prices hold relatively steady, discounting becomes a tactical tool to shorten marketing times and push homes toward contract.

The pattern indicates a shift in builder behavior that affects incentives and the timing of closings. As builders increase promotional pricing, they also alter incentives and may expedite permit activity and deliveries to match sales cadence, market observers say. Those adjustments feed into expectations for the early 2026 pipeline as participants recalibrate pricing strategies and sales schedules in response to both local inventory conditions and national affordability headwinds.

Regional Divergence and Price Stability

Seven states show higher-than-national existing-home reduction rates and larger shares of new-home price cuts: Nevada (new construction 24.8% vs existing 19.6%), Indiana (23.3% vs 22.1%), South Carolina (21.6% vs 17.4%), Minnesota (21.6% vs 17.4%), North Carolina (21.3% vs 19.1%), New Jersey (19.9% vs 10.7%), and Texas (19.0% vs 17.5%). Four of these are in the South or West—regions with elevated new-construction activity—while Indiana, Minnesota and New Jersey stand out as Midwest and Northeast exceptions.

Despite the uptick in discounts, the median listing price for a newly built home in the fourth quarter of 2025 is $451,128, up just 0.3% year‑over‑year, illustrating modest price stability even as builders increasingly use reductions to compete. Realtor.com’s findings suggest the industry is shifting from broad price appreciation to targeted discounting and incentives as builders navigate demand, inventory and affordability into 2026.