BAM Key Details:
- Redfin reports that sellers gave buyers a concession in 44.7% of home sales this August, up from 42.6% a year earlier and the highest share for that month since 2020.
- Concessions reached 72.8% of sales in Atlanta and just 4.2% in San Jose, the widest range across the 29 metros Redfin tracked.
- Nationally, 15.8% of August sales combined a concession with a price cut, the highest August share Redfin has recorded for that combination.
Sellers gave buyers a concession in 44.7% of home sales this August, according to Redfin. It’s the highest share the company has recorded for that month since it started tracking concessions in 2020, and it’s up from 42.6% a year earlier.
Buyers have more room to negotiate than they’ve had in years. How much room depends heavily on where they’re shopping.
Sellers in some markets are covering closing costs and repairs left and right. In others, buyers still can’t get a concession no matter how they ask.
We’re looking at what counts as a concession, why the national number keeps climbing, and where buyers have the most and least leverage right now.
Stay tuned for a script agents can use right now to raise concessions awareness with buyer clients, specifically in markets where the concession rate makes it a viable play.
What Counts as a Seller Concession
A seller concession, in Redfin’s data, means money toward repairs, closing costs, or a mortgage rate buydown. It does not include a lower list price or a price cut that came out of negotiation. Those get tracked as their own category.
The data comes from Redfin’s buyers’ agents, who report on deals they close across rolling three month periods.
Redfin compares August to past Augusts because concession activity is seasonal, the same way home sales are.
Concessions Climb to a Multi-Year High
The share of home sales with a concession has climbed almost every year since 2020:
- 2021: 24.1%
- 2022: 27.6%
- 2023: 34.8%
- 2024: 35.3%
- 2025: 42.6%
- 2026: 44.7%
August also marked the strongest buyer’s market Redfin has recorded since it started tracking in 2013. There are more homes for sale and fewer buyers competing for them.
Sellers are stepping up to cover costs and close deals faster.
Buyers in high-concession markets feel like they can hold out for exactly what they want, especially with new construction. Agents are seeing this in Sunbelt markets like Dallas, TX, where buyers can afford to be picky. And they know it.
Builders are offering $10-20K in concessions, buying down mortgage rates, and throwing in appliances to sweeten the deal. Agents are seeing buyers walk away from homes they love because the pantry was too small, something that is far from a dealbreaker in more supply-deficient metros.
In one case, a buyer didn’t like the laundry room, and they walked away even when the sellers offered to change the floor plan.
Where Concessions Are Most and Least Common
Eight of the 10 metros with the highest concession rates are in the Sun Belt. Those markets built at a rapid pace during the pandemic boom, and now they’re sitting on more inventory than buyers can absorb.
Highest share of home sales with a concession, August 2026:
- Atlanta, GA: 72.8%
- Charlotte, NC: 67.9%
- Phoenix, AZ: 67.4%
- Las Vegas, NV: 66.7%
- Raleigh, NC: 66.3%
- Nashville, TN: 63.1%
- Houston, TX: 58.5%
- Denver, CO: 58.4%
- Riverside, CA: 58.0%
- Virginia Beach, VA: 57.7%
Sellers outnumber buyers in most of these markets, in some cases by more than two to one. That leaves house hunters with plenty of room to negotiate.
Concessions are rare on the other end of the list.
Lowest share of home sales with a concession, August 2026:
- San Jose, CA: 4.2%
- New York, NY: 5.7%
- San Francisco, CA: 18.6%
- Chicago, IL: 21.9%
- Philadelphia, PA: 25.5%
- Boston, MA: 26.3%
- Orlando, FL: 43.5%
- Miami, FL: 43.8%
- Washington, DC: 44.0%
- Tampa, FL: 47.8%
San Francisco is one of just five seller’s markets left in the country, driven in part by an AI hiring boom pulling in buyers with money to spend.
A few of the other lowest markets, including San Jose and Chicago, are balanced markets, where buyers and sellers are close to even in number. Neither side holds much leverage there.
Some Markets Are Moving the Other Direction
Concession rates rose in 20 of the 29 metros Redfin tracked and fell in the other 9.
Biggest year over year increases in concession share:
- Phoenix, AZ: up 15.3 percentage points
- Charlotte, NC: up 9.3 percentage points
- Boston, MA: up 9.0 percentage points
- Riverside, CA: up 9.0 percentage points
- Orlando, FL: up 8.2 percentage points
Phoenix leads that list by a wide margin. Its concession rate climbed 15.3 percentage points in a single year, the biggest jump anywhere in the country. Charlotte and Riverside also saw big increases, both counted among the busiest buyer’s markets in the Sun Belt.
Biggest year over year declines in concession share:
- Seattle, WA: down 21.4 percentage points
- San Jose, CA: down 6.0 percentage points
- San Diego, CA: down 5.3 percentage points
- Denver, CO: down 4.5 percentage points
- Nashville, TN: down 4.1 percentage points
Seattle’s drop is the biggest swing on either list. Its concession rate fell from close to 70% a year ago to 48.5% this August. Some of that comes down to a base effect, since Seattle’s concession rate was unusually high last summer, leaving more room for it to fall.
Price cuts are also saving buyers money, even when concessions aren’t part of the deal.
Nearly six out of 10 (57%) Seattle homes that sold in August went for below asking price. Buyers there are getting their discount at the list price instead of through a formal concession.
In some cases, though, sellers are giving buyers both a concession and a price cut. Nationally, 15.8% of homes that sold in August got both, up from 15.6% a year ago and the highest share for that month Redfin has on record.
On the flipside, San Jose and San Diego are seeing their concession rates drop as competition returns. Both markets are picking up speed, with agents in San Diego reporting more competition for single-family, turnkey homes.
The Play for Agents
All of this data adds up to one practical question for agents: how do you use it with a buyer sitting across the table in a market where sellers are more likely to offer or say yes to concessions?
Here’s a script you can use now, fresh from Script Advisor in BAMx, built on the weekly roleplay masterminds with Byron Lazine, Tom Toole, and Lisa Chinatti, and updated every week:
“Hey [Name], quick update I wanted to get to you. Nationally, about half of all buyers right now are getting concessions from sellers, things like closing cost help, rate buydowns, repairs. In [Your Market], we’re seeing that in roughly [X]% of deals. That’s real money back in your pocket at the table. Are you open to a quick call this week so I can show you exactly how to structure an offer that gets you in on that?”
Before you use a script like this one, start by checking how long local listings in your buyer’s price range have sat on the market and whether the price has already dropped once. Homes sitting longer, in markets carrying more inventory, are the ones most likely to come with a concession attached (or with a seller who’s open to them).
Keep in mind, too, that not every concession fits every buyer:
- A repair credit covers inspection issues without a fight over price.
- A rate buydown lowers the monthly payment (temporarily) for buyers stretching to qualify.
- Closing cost help frees up cash for the move itself.
Which one makes sense depends on what your buyer needs most. A concession can also be paired with a price talk, especially on a home that’s been sitting for a while or already had one price cut.
Concession activity moves with local market conditions. Before telling a buyer what to expect this fall, check Redfin’s metro-level data table at the bottom of their report to pull the concession rates for your market.
Also check local days-on-market and price-drop numbers to give your buyers a fuller picture that explains the steady climb in concessions.
In markets where concession rates are still low, share the data with your buyers so they understand what options they have versus which ones are unlikely to get a yes.
