Des Moines home sellers drop prices to draw in buyers

Roughly 35% of Des Moines metro houses for sale saw price cuts recently, according to Redfin data.

Why it matters: Home sellers across the country are increasingly offering discounts to entice buyers hampered by high housing costs .

Flashback: Price cuts surged nationwide in 2022 , partly because rising mortgage rates caused home shoppers to back out of the market.

State of play: Now that the market is slowing down, sellers are deciding to price their homes more affordably to better sell, says Les Sulgrove, a local realtor and former president of the DSM Area Association of Realtors Association.

Yes, but: Discounted prices don't mean homes are cheaper than usual.

• While Des Moines' home prices are lower than the national average, the area still reached a record-high median sale price of $307K in June.

What they're saying: Current home prices still aren't affordable for first-time homebuyers in Des Moines who are typically looking under the $200K range, Sulgrove says.

• But the discounted prices could help existing homeowners who want to sell and move up — opening up cheaper home inventory.

What's next: Many real estate agents expect competition to heat up once summer vacation ends and kids are back in school.

What we're watching: There's still quite a lot of room for mortgage rates to continue to drop, Axios' Felix Salmon reports .

• Mortgage rates are still more than 2.6 percentage points higher than the 10-year Treasury yield — way above historic levels.