For the First Time in Recent History, New Home Price Reductions Outpace Existing Homes: Realtor.com® Report Finds

Nevada, Indiana, South Carolina, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey and Texas Lead the Way When it Comes to Share of Price Reduced New Construction

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly one in five new homes saw price cuts in late 2025, overtaking the resale market for the first time in recent history, according to Realtor.com^® Quarterly New Construction Insights. In the same quarter, the share of existing homes with cuts was 18.3%, signaling a shift in how builders and existing-sellers are competing for homebuyers. Price reductions in the existing-home market are generally concentrated in the South and West, and the data reveal that new construction homes also follow this geographic pattern, with some exceptions. Although they are in the Midwest and Northeast, Indiana, Minnesota, and New Jersey have more price reductions on newly-built homes than the national level.

"New construction has been one of the steadiest parts of the housing market over the past few years, but builders are clearly responding to today's affordability pressures and higher-levels of existing-home inventory," said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com^®. "Nearly one in five new homes cut prices, more than in the resale market for the first time in recent history. This is not just a reflection of regional divergence and where new homes are built; we are seeing builders compete more directly on price to keep sales moving, even as overall new-home prices remain relatively stable."

There are seven states, Nevada, Indiana, South Carolina, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey and Texas, where the rate of price reductions is higher than the national level (18.3%). In these states, there are more price reductions among new construction listings than existing listings, though most of them have relatively high levels of existing home price reductions as well. Four of them are in the South or West, where new construction activity is highest and general home inventory is elevated, but the other three (Indiana, Minnesota, and New Jersey) truly stand out. Four of these are situated in the South or West, regions characterized by high levels of new construction and elevated inventory. Indiana, Minnesota, and New Jersey represent the three notable exceptions.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, the median listing price for a newly built home was $451,128, up just 0.3% from a year earlier, while resale home prices were essentially flat. But those topline numbers mask a widening divergence by property type. Newly built condos and townhomes carried a substantially higher premium (30.7%) over existing attached homes, while newly built single-family homes were priced just 10.7% above existing single-family homes—a gap that has been shrinking.

In Key Metros, Condos Can Carry A Price Premium Compared to Single Family Homes

This report also explored newly built condos compared to newly built single family homes and found newly built condos and townhomes cost more than newly built single-family homes nationwide. This finding is due largely to geography and where new condos are being built.

Newly built attached homes are concentrated in high-cost urban markets, while new single-family construction is expanding in more affordable metros, particularly across the South and West. Nearly 10% of all new condos for sale nationwide are located in the New York and Miami metropolitan areas, where median prices exceed $1 million. Meanwhile, new single-family construction is dominated by markets such as Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Atlanta, and Phoenix, where prices are closer to the national median and supply is more plentiful.

"What we're seeing is a market where single-family new construction is filling an affordability gap that resale homes increasingly can't," said Joel Berner, senior economist, Realtor.com^®. "Condos are still playing an important role in certain markets, but they're skewing more luxury, while detached homes are doing more of the work when it comes to expanding supply."

Methodology
Realtor.com housing data as of December 2025. Listings include the active inventory of newly built single-family homes and condos/townhomes/row homes/co-ops for the given level of geography on Realtor.com. Realtor.com new construction data history goes back to January 2023.

About Realtor.com^®
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Media contact: Mallory Micetich, [email protected]

SOURCE Realtor.com