Fewer Sellers Forced to Cut Home Prices

Will sellers ever wrest control of the housing market from buyers? We may still be a far cry from tipping the scales in sellers' favor, but a recent survey shows that the number of sellers forced to lower their asking price fell in September. Real estate site Zillow found that 28 percent of its home listings saw a price reduction in September, an improvement over the 34.9 percent of homes with slashed prices in August. In addition, the median price cut for sellers in September was 6.8 percent. For sellers, an encouraging improvement over the August median of 7.2 percent. This marks the second consecutive month that the percentage of home sellers who lowered their asking price decreased from the previous month. But take these latest figures with a grain of salt. As of June 2006, when prices peaked, national home values have declined for 48 consecutive months, according to Zillow's Q2 market reports.