Eighty percent. That’s the share of home sellers right now who expect to get their full asking price, or more, when they sell. When I first came across that number, it stopped me in my tracks, because the data on what’s actually happening in the market tells a very different story.
I get where the expectation comes from. For a few years, that really was the market. But a lot has changed since then, and sellers who don’t know it yet are the ones most likely to leave money on the table.
Why the 2021 Market Still Shapes Expectations
From 2020 through 2022, sellers had about as favorable a market as it gets. Bidding wars were common, homes routinely sold above asking, and listings moved in a matter of days. Whether sellers lived through that stretch themselves or simply watched it happen to a neighbor, it left a lasting impression of what selling a home is supposed to look like.
That expectation hasn’t gone away, even though the market that created it has. Homeowners who watched values climb during those years often still expect that same energy today, and walking into the current market with 2021 assumptions is one of the more expensive mistakes a seller can make right now.
What the Pricing Data Actually Shows
More homes are selling below their asking price than we’ve seen in years, and in many metro areas the gap between what sellers are asking and what buyers are actually willing to pay has widened considerably.
In practice, that gap shows up in one of three ways: a home sits on the market longer than the seller expected, the price gets reduced after the fact, or the listing gets pulled altogether. All three are avoidable when a home is priced accurately from the start.
Days on Market Confirm the Trend
Pricing isn’t the only place this shows up. Days on market tells the same story. Homes have now taken longer to sell, on a year-over-year basis, for twenty-six straight months. That’s not a short-term blip, that’s a sustained trend.
Nationally, the typical home spent fifty-two days on the market in May of 2026, a meaningful jump from just a few years ago. Buyers are taking their time, comparing options, and exercising a level of patience they simply didn’t have room for when inventory was scarce.
A Near-Record Share of Listings Are Being Withdrawn
Here’s a number worth sitting with. In April, nearly six percent of all U.S. home listings were pulled off the market entirely, a share tied for the highest since March of 2020, when the pandemic brought the market to a standstill.
The context matters here. Most of these sellers aren’t giving up, they’re regrouping, and many of those homes return to market later with better pricing, better photos, and better timing. But the scale at which it’s happening says a lot about how far seller expectations have drifted from market reality.
What Separates Sellers Who Come Out Ahead
An overpriced home rarely just sits quietly. It goes stale, loses negotiating leverage, and starts to make buyers wonder what might be wrong with it. Counterintuitively, a home that lingers on the market too long often ends up selling for less than it would have if it had been priced correctly from day one, because the eventual price reduction signals desperation, and buyers respond to that with lower offers.
The sellers who come out ahead in this market share a common approach: accurate data, realistic expectations, and a pricing strategy built around where the market actually stands today, not where it stood a few years ago.
Get the Pricing Right Before You List
If you’re weighing whether to sell, the biggest lever you control is getting the price right from the outset. Overpricing doesn’t just risk a slower sale, it can mean thousands of dollars left on the table once a stale listing forces a reduction.
That requires real, current, local data, not what a neighbor’s home sold for in 2022, and not a Zillow estimate. You need to know what comparable homes in your specific neighborhood are actually selling for right now.
If your home is in Cobb or Cherokee County, that’s exactly what I walk sellers through on a free 30-minute Zoom call, a real Comparative Market Analysis built around your home and neighborhood using current MLS data. No pressure, no obligation, just an honest look at what the market is telling us.
Ken Mandich is a Realtor® and Listing Expert with Complete Realty Team, serving Metro Atlanta with a focus on Cobb and Cherokee County. You can reach him at 404-410-6465 or [email protected].
