Published October 7, 2026 in Market Update

Why do higher prices in San Antonio take longer to sell?

By Scott Peck

Real estate, SABOR Market Update San Antonio

I pulled every lived-in home that came off the San Antonio market without a sale, as of October 7, 2026. Then I sorted them by what the seller first asked. Five price ranges. One clear pattern. The higher the price, the harder it got to sell.

The higher you price, the more likely you are to come away with nothing.

Across the whole San Antonio market, 506 lived-in homes gave up. That is 3.6 homes that gave up for every 10 that sold. But that number is not spread evenly. It climbs as the price climbs.

Under $400K, 21.4% of homes gave up. That is already more than 1 in 5. Move up to $400K to $500K and it rises to 25.2%. At $500K to $600K, it is 28.2%. Then it jumps again.

The $600K to $750K range had the highest give-up rate of any range: 30.7%. That is nearly 31 in 100. For every 10 homes that either sold or gave up in that range, 3 never found a buyer.

The $750K and up range came in at 28.3%, just below the $600K to $750K range. That might feel like a relief, but 97 homes in that range still came off the market with nothing. The typical home that gave up across the whole market first asked $560,000. The typical home that sold first asked $525,000. That $35,000 gap matters.

The surprise: homes above $600K that did sell got more of their asking price.

Here is the part that catches people off guard. The $600K to $750K range had the highest give-up rate, but the homes that did sell there got 97% of what they first asked. That is actually higher than the Under $400K range, where sellers got 96.6%.

The $750K and up range tells a different story. Sellers there got 94.3% of what they first asked, the lowest of any range. And they waited a middle of 55 days, longer than any range except the $500K to $600K group at 52 days.

The $600K to $750K range had the highest rate of homes that gave up: 30.7% of all homes listed there never sold. But here is the part that matters. Of the 750 homes that came off the market with no sale across this whole market, 135 came back and sold. The data does not break that down by price range, so I can not tell you exactly how many in this range eventually made it. What I can tell you is that the 230 homes that did sell here got 98.4% of their last asking price. Higher prices do take longer. But they can sell. The ones that did not were more likely priced past what buyers would pay, and they stayed there.

Right now, 593 homes are for sale in this market. Nearly 67% of them have already dropped their price. The typical drop is $26,380. That is a signal. A lot of sellers started too high and are working their way back down.

What this means if you are buying or selling right now.

If you are selling above $600K, the one thing this data says to do is price it right from the start. Nearly 67% of homes currently for sale have already cut their price, with a typical drop of $26,380. That means a lot of sellers tried to start high and adjust later. The homes that gave up never got the chance to adjust. The homes that sold in the $600K to $750K range got 97% of what they first asked, which tells you the buyers are there. They just will not chase a price that is out of step with the market.

If you are buying above $600K, you have real negotiating room, but you also have competition from a shrinking pool. The 30-year fixed rate averaged 7.28% as of October 1, 2026, up from 6.34% a year earlier (Freddie Mac). That rate is pushing some buyers out of the upper ranges, which is part of why give-up rates are higher there. Fewer buyers means more leverage for you, but only on homes that have been sitting. Homes in the $600K to $750K range that did sell moved in a middle of 48 days. If a home has been on the market well past that, the seller may be ready to talk.