SEATTLE — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.
Seattle leads all major U.S. metropolitan areas in concessions for home buyers as the trend continues to escalate nationally.
Home sellers gave concessions to buyers in a whopping 71.3% of transactions during the first quarter of 2025, nearly double the mark from a year ago. In 2024, just 36.4% of house real estate transactions included concessions. Not only does Seattle lead all metro regions in 2025, it’s also the largest year-over-year increase among the metros Redfin analyzed.
Seller concessions are a strategic arrangement in a real estate transaction where the seller covers certain costs or fees associated with purchasing a home. This could a number of things, including covering closing costs, repairs for a stretch of time, inspection fees, property taxes, and attorney fees.
Redfin claimed the increase in seller concessions is due to a “sluggish” demand for home purchases, with reasons ranging from the region’s high prices, taxes, and overall economic uncertainty. Redfin reported that 13% of pending home sales were canceled in March.
“It’s super common to see seller concessions for condos and new-construction townhomes, but less so for single-family homes—unless the single-family home has been sitting on the market for a while,” Redfin agent Stephanie Kastner said in a press release. “Condos have become a tougher sell because of skyrocketing HOA fees and insurance.”
Nationally, sellers are giving concessions to buyers in 44.4% of the house transactions Redfin has processed in 2025—5% more compared in 2024 and quickly approaching the 45.1% record the first quarter of 2023 set.
“Buyers used to ask for concessions to cover little things like repairs. Now they’re negotiating concessions so they can afford to buy a home,” Chaley McVay, a Redfin Premier real estate agent, said. “A lot of sellers are offering money for mortgage-rate buydowns, and I recently had one seller cover seven months of HOA fees for the buyer.”
Other metropolitan areas’ concession rates
Following Seattle, the only major city that cleared 70% of its home sales with a concession, Portland is the next closest at 63.9%, followed by Atlanta (61.5%), San Diego (60.7%), Denver (59.2%), Los Angeles (56.1%), Sacramento (52.5%), Las Vegas (51.9%), Riverside (51.2%), and Phoenix (51.2%).
No other major metropolitan area cleared 50%. The lowest rates of including concessions in home sales were New York (5.5%), San Francisco (14.9%), San Jose (16.7%), Boston (18.7%), and Chicago (26.4%).
In addition to New York having the least overall concessions, it also had the largest year-over-year drop, down 15.7%. The next biggest declines were in Miami (-13.1%), San Antonio (-10.9%), Tampa (-9.2%), and Phoenix (-3.5%).
“Housing markets across Florida and Texas have been cooling for a while, and prices are now falling in many parts of those states,” Redfin stated. “Sellers in Florida and Texas have had more time to get used to a slow market, and have started pricing their homes lower from the get-go, meaning they often don’t need to offer concessions.”
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