Redfin reports that while many sellers in some parts of the country are handing out freebies to attract buyers as high rates dampen demand, other markets have so few homes for sale that concessions aren’t necessary

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, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. That’s just shy of the 45.6% record-high hit in February.

The share of home sellers providing concessions—which include things like money toward repairs, closing costs and mortgage-rate buydowns—has inched down from February’s peak due to typical seasonality. Concessions become less common in the early spring because that’s when more buyers typically enter the market, increasing competition and giving sellers more power. But this spring, concessions posted a smaller decline than the last two years because high mortgage rates have made it so sellers in cool markets 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’s smaller drop corresponds with less homebuyer competition, with 46% of offers written by Redfin agents facing a bidding war in April, down from 59% a year earlier.

Sellers are throwing in freebies to woo buyers at a higher frequency than last year for several reasons:

• Buyers backing out of the market. Many house hunters have put their buying plans on hold because rising mortgage rates have made homeownership more expensive. And while home prices have fallen 4% from a year ago, that’s not enough to offset the cost of higher rates, with monthly mortgage payments at a record high. Another factor dampening demand is the lack of supply, with fewer people listing their homes for sale as they hold onto comparatively low mortgage rates.
• Sellers who need to sell. Many people who are listing their homes are moving because they need to; maybe they got a divorce or secured a new job in a different state. Those sellers may be willing to provide concessions because they need to sell their home quickly.
• Homebuilders offering freebies to attract buyers. There was a surge in homebuilding during the pandemic as builders tried to capitalize on the moving frenzy, especially in pandemic homebuying hotspots. Now that rising rates have pushed many buyers out of the market, builders are trying to sell off their backlog of inventory by offering perks like money toward the buyer’s closing costs, gift cards and even free cars.

While buyers have the upper hand in some markets, that’s not the case everywhere. In some areas, there are so few homes for sale that homebuyers are encountering competition. And when buyers are involved in a bidding war, they typically won’t win if they ask for concessions like mortgage-rate buydowns or help with closing costs.

“High mortgage rates and low supply have thrown the housing market out of whack, and each deal is different. Some buyers are asking sellers for the sun, the moon and the stars in addition to offering below the asking price, and some are requesting no extras because they’re so motivated to secure one of the few homes on the market,” said Boise, ID Redfin agent Shauna Pendleton. “The one consistency in the market right now is homebuilders handing out freebies. Most builders are offering concessions equal to about 3% of the sale price, which gets credited to buyers at closing, to offload properties. Buyers are using the extra cash to cover closing costs or buy down their mortgage rate.”

Sellers are also accepting less money for their homes

Just over one in seven (15.7%) home sellers dropped their asking price in addition to providing a concession to the eventual buyer during the three months ending April 30. That’s nearly four times the share of a year earlier (4.2%).

Roughly one in five (20.5%) of homes that sold during the period had a final sale price below the asking price in addition to a concession, up from about 7% a year earlier. And about one in 10 (9.4%) had all three: A concession, a price drop and a final sale price below the original list price. That’s up from just 2.2% a year earlier.

Those shares have all inched down from record highs set in February, which is typical for this time of year, and 2023’s declines are actually smaller than the declines in 2021 and 2022.

Sellers concessions up most in pandemic homebuying boomtowns

Tampa, FL saw a bigger year-over-year jump in seller concessions than any other metro Redfin analyzed. Sellers in Tampa gave concessions to buyers in 58% of home sales during the three months ending April 30, up from 12% a year earlier.

The next-biggest increases were in Nashville, TN (49%, up from 5.6%), Salt Lake City (46.8%, up from 12.3%), Seattle (45.7%, up from 11.7%) and Raleigh, NC (64.6%, up from 31.2%).

The share of sellers giving out concessions rose over the last year in all metros Redfin analyzed.

Concessions are most common in Phoenix, San Diego and Raleigh

Sellers in Phoenix gave concessions to buyers in 68.5% of home sales in the three months ending April 30, the highest share of the metros Redfin analyzed and nearly double 35.9% a year earlier.

San Diego (66.1%), Raleigh (64.6%), Las Vegas (59.1%) and Denver (58.1%) rounded out the top five. Like the metros where concessions rose most, these are all places where homebuying demand skyrocketed during the pandemic and is now waning.

To view the full report, including charts, metro-level data, and methodology, please visit:
https://www.redfin.com/news/home-seller-concessions-april-2023

Mortgage rates rose dramatically in 2022, with the average rate on a 30-year, fixed mortgage doubling between January and December. Rates haven’t grown nearly as much this year, hovering between 6% and 7% — that said, they’re still considerably higher than at this time last year.

While it’s common knowledge that higher mortgage rates make monthly payments more expensive, it can be difficult to picture how much a higher rate can impact payments on a loan. With that in mind, LendingTree used data collected from users of our online mortgage marketplace to put a dollar amount on how rising rates could affect the cost of a mortgage. Here's what we found. 

• 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage APRs increased by an average of 1.85 percentage points across all 50 states between April 2022 and April 2023. 
• Nationwide, rising APRs caused calculated mortgage payments to increase by an average of $121.09 a month. To put that figure into perspective, that monthly increase amounts to an average of $1,453.10 in extra costs each year and an average of $43,593.12 in additional costs over the lifetime of a 30-year loan.
• Calculated mortgage payments increased the least in North Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. 
• Hawaii, New York and California saw mortgage payments increase the most. 

You can check out our full report here: https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/rising-mortgage-rates-study/

LendingTree's Senior Economist and report author, Jacob Channel, had this to say:

"Fortunately, mortgage rates have stopped climbing so dramatically over recent months. While rates have fluctuated up and down on a week-to-week basis over the last several months, they haven’t experienced the same consistent gains that they did last year. This trend could continue over the coming months as the Fed appears likely to have halted hikes to its target Federal Funds Rate for the time being, and as inflation continues to come down.” 

Trust is defined as “the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” We strive to trust others in our personal lives every day, trusting a partner, friend, or family member. We trust them to tell us the truth even when it hurts. We trust them to communicate and be compassionate, but also truthful and to stick to what they believe in.

The same goes for employee business relationships and customer business relationships, but trust is even more essential in everyday business operations and simultaneously difficult to build and even harder to repair if broken.

Why is this so?

This is a complex question to answer, and it is difficult to build or rebuild this trust with an Anticipatory mindset. As evidenced by David Horsager in a recent episode of my Opportunity Hour: Conversations with the Masters, institutional trust is down, whether that institution be a company you own, one you work for, the government, or another professional entity.

In his book, “Trusted Leader: 8 Pillars That Drive Results,” David shares eight key qualities that successful companies possess to cultivate trust among employees and customers. During our interview, I examined these pillars with David and discovered their power in cultivating an Anticipatory Mindset for building and, more importantly, rebuilding trust with both customers and employees.

The 8 Pillars of Trust and Being an Anticipatory Leader

1. Clarity

Simplicity and exactness are vital keys to developing institutional trust. David has found that people do not trust leaders who are overly complex or, conversely, too vague either. If a leader’s vision or the steps to achieve such vision is not communicated clearly to their audience, a sense of mistrust begins to develop.

To connect this to cultivating an Anticipatory mindset as a leader of an institution, having a lack of clarity around your goals translates to a lack of understanding Hard Trends. Hard Trends are those that will absolutely come to fruition, and with the capability of defining what a Hard Trend is both in your industry and in the outside world, you should be able to bring your team and your customers a clear picture of your intentions.

2. Compassion

Compassion does not mean that the organization or leader was compassionate toward us personally. It means that they were compassionate toward the industry and organization as a whole, fostering a sense of unity in teamwork. David and I discussed how we as humans look toward those that we feel have a higher purpose as it demonstrates both a trust in stability and a trust in guidance.

Whether it is a goal for an organization we believe in or a product that we believe in, we trust those that care beyond themselves. In regard to an Anticipatory mindset, this pillar aligns quite well with my thoughts about placing significance over success as a leader. Concrete trust is cemented when you aim to sculpt a significant legacy in the world.

3. Character

The pillar of character from David Horsager means that we trust those who do what is right over what is easy. The easy route is essentially taking the simple way out regardless of the problems it may have left, whereas a trustworthy character comes from putting in the legwork to right the wrongs, no matter how large or small.

Here is a large one, indeed: David and I discussed the BP oil spill of 2010 in this episode. Following an explosion of an oil rig, oil spilled into the ocean and ultimately caused a negative ripple effect that altered the area’s aquatic ecosystem. Yes, BP apologized, but they did not shirk from the issue, launching excursions and cleanup initiatives to remedy the mistake. Rebuilding trust with character is a classic case of leveraging a Soft Trend you can influence, such as preventing the ultimate decimation of an ecosystem.

4. Competency

Having character does not mean your business or organization is competent in something. If you are trying to sell me on an electric motorcycle your company has built when your cornerstone has always been gas motorcycles, I will not immediately trust that you are competent enough to produce a safe and efficient electric motorcycle.

However, character and competency do go hand in hand. As a way to prove you are competent in your industry overall, having the character to follow through with any shortcomings in an industry your organization appears to be an expert in, or perhaps something you are newly delving into, helps maintain trust. Consider this to be an exercise in exponential thinking from my Anticipatory Leader System — seeing all possibilities available to have a mastery of your industry.

5. Commitment

David outlines to us that both employees and customers trust those that have a solid commitment to their industry. If you are constantly choosing new directions, many will see it as a shaky foundation or lack of leadership, with a mindset constantly in flux or that you and your organization do not have your eye on the prize.

Again, if you are able to identify a Hard Trend, it is best to stay committed to it and leverage it to anticipate where it is heading. This is how you evolve your business or organization in a trustworthy way — with Hard Trend future certainties. The key here is to be able to differentiate between these and Soft Trend future possibilities.

6. Connection

No business can be successful without collaboration and finding successful ways to combine the two jobs into a cohesive whole. Additionally, humans are social creatures. Whether it is work, play, or for personal reasons, we rely heavily on social connections and interactions when looking to trust individuals or organizations.

As such, the pillar of connection is a foundation of institutional trust, internally and externally as well. As an employee, you likely do not trust a team that does not seem connected just as you likely do not trust eating at a restaurant that in no way connects to their customers through marketing or otherwise. Be a leading force that can be counted upon by again thinking exponentially about how you can connect to those who you rely on as an organization.

7. Contribution

You can be a master of all the aforementioned 8 Pillars of Trust, but how do any of those quantify into something substantial if there is no contribution to the industry? This is where the rubber meets the road and you deliver on your promises of excellence to customers and employees alike.

Internally, everyone’s role contributes to the success of your business or organization, but externally, what you contribute to the industry and, more importantly, the world determines if the world will trust you. As David states, you can have character, commitment, connection, and many other pillars mastered, but if there is no tactile contribution, there is nothing quantifiable to trust.

8. Consistency

Trustworthiness is strengthened by consistency in all ways. Similar to staying committed to a goal, trust is broken when consistency at a business or organization wavers. The message given off to those internal at your business or the customers you serve is that you will be here in the future, which translates to strength of trust in the moment.

My Hard Trend Methodology lays out an integral roadmap for businesses and organizations to chart their consistency with customers and employees, meaning customers will stick with you knowing you can pre-solve the disruptive problems on the horizon using your products or services and employees rest easy knowing your organization is one they can rely on for their career.

If you are looking for more insights in how to build or rebuild trust with customers and employees, I encourage you to read David Horsager’s book Trusted Leader: 8 Pillars That Drive Results and, likewise, explore my Anticipatory Leader System to see how these great insights align with my Hard Trend Methodology, teachings in exponential thinking, and more.