Published October 11, 2026 in Market Update

Richmond inventory is down, but price cuts are showing up

By Jen Orth, RVA Realtor

Real estate, City of Richmond

Here is the tension in Richmond's market right now. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 737 homes for sale across the City of Richmond in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is down 8.2% from a year before. Fewer choices for buyers. But Realtor.com reported that 21.3% of Richmond metro listings had a price cut in September 2026. So supply is tight and sellers are still trimming prices. Both things are true at once.

What that tells a homeowner: lower inventory does not guarantee any price will land. Buyers are still pushing back on homes that are priced past what the market will bear. What it tells a buyer: there is more room to negotiate than this market's supply numbers suggest, on the homes that have already missed.

Sales are up a little. Pending contracts are down a little. New listings are nearly flat. The city is not surging and it is not stalling. It is an interesting market right now, and the story changes street by street.

Rates are adding pressure on both sides

CNBC reported the average 30-year fixed rate rose to 7.49% in the week ending October 7, 2026. That is up from 7.30% just the week before, according to CNBC. Realtor.com noted rates topped 7% for the first time since January 2025 in September 2026. Higher rates slow buyers down. They also make sellers who need to move more willing to negotiate. That is part of why price cuts are appearing even as supply stays lean.

How each ZIP code read in the three months ending August 31, 2026

The city is not one market. These numbers from the Real Estate Data Aggregator show how different the story can be from one neighborhood to the next.

Where homes sold fast and where they sat

ZIP 23221 had the fastest pace. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted a median of 9 days on market there, 7 days shorter than a year before. Inventory fell 32.1% in that ZIP. Homes there averaged 103.8% of list price, and 60% sold above list. That is a very different read from ZIP 23234, where the median was 24 days and only 29.8% sold above list.

Where sellers got over asking, and where they did not

This is where the price-cut story gets real. In ZIP 23221, 60% of homes sold above list, up 23.1 points from a year before. In ZIP 23230, only 33.3% did, down 16.7 points. In ZIP 23220, that share dropped 12 points year over year to 28.8%. Pricing right matters more than it did a year ago in several parts of the city.

A few ZIPs worth a closer look

ZIP 23225 (off Forest Hill and Westover Hills) had inventory fall 33.3%, the sharpest drop in the city. Yet the median sale price fell 8% to $428,000. Sales volume rose 15.3%. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows 57.3% of homes there went under contract within two weeks. So it moved fast, but the middle price came down. That is a mix worth understanding if you own there.

ZIP 23220 (the Fan, Scott's Addition) saw the biggest price gain: up 21.6% to $590,000. Sales rose 20.4%. But the share of homes selling above list fell 12 points, and the sale-to-list ratio slipped 0.7 points to 99.5%. More homes sold, at higher prices, but with a little less heat at the top. The Realtor.com metro median of $439,925 for September 2026 sits well below what this ZIP recorded.

ZIP 23231 (the Varina area, off Williamsburg Road) had the most supply: 2.9 months, up 0.6 months from a year ago. New listings rose 22.8%. Homes sold fell 22.8%. The median price was down 1% to $360,000. That is the softest read in the city right now, and the one most likely to have room for a buyer to negotiate.

What the national picture adds

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026, and 0.3% from June to July 2026 on a seasonally adjusted basis. That is modest national appreciation. Richmond's city ZIPs are running both above and below that line, depending on where you look. CNBC reported purchase mortgage applications fell 2% for the week ending October 7, 2026. Refinance applications were 56% lower than the same week a year ago. Rates at 7.49% are keeping a lid on buyer activity nationally, and Richmond is not immune.