Compass CEO Warns Housing Market Is Splitting Apart as 42% of Homes See Price Cuts, Highest in Nearly a Decade: 'There's Not One Market'

Compass, Inc. (NYSE:COMP) CEO Robert Reffkin said 42% of U.S. homes on the market saw a price cut in September, the highest share in nearly a decade.

Reffkin made the comments in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday, saying the housing market isn’t one uniform market, while noting that it has been split by geography and price point.

A Split Market

“There’s not one market. There’s different markets by geography, different markets by price point,” Reffkin said.

He noted that sales of homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 are down 10%, while sales of homes priced above $1 million are up 4%, reflecting a market increasingly divided by price point, since lower-end buyers are more sensitive to mortgage rates while wealthier buyers pay cash and benefit from a strong stock market.

He added that supply is up 4% nationally, and mortgage rates are expected to reach 7% by year-end, which he said would bring inventory back to pre-pandemic levels.

Reffkin said overall transactions were down 2% month-over-month and down 1% year-over-year. Accounting for price, prices are up 1.6% year-over-year, which he called “impressive” given mortgage rates are 50 basis points higher than a year ago.

Where Cuts Are Concentrated

Price cuts are most common in Colorado and Texas, particularly Austin, which saw an influx of buyers from California during the pandemic, some of whom have since moved back.

Chicago and New York are seeing the fewest cuts due to low supply.

Rates Already Climbing

Mortgage rates have already moved close to that mark. The average 30-year fixed rate rose to 7.07% Thursday, its highest since May 2025, according to Mortgage News Daily. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey separately put the 30-year rate at 6.76%.

“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.76% this week,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Aspiring buyers should remember shopping around for the best mortgage rate.”

The rate pressure comes as the 10-year Treasury yield approaches 5%, with some strategists warning yields could climb toward 8% given the scale of national debt. Housing activity has also grown increasingly split by wealth, with luxury sales outpacing the broader market in dozens of major U.S. metro areas.

Disclaimer: This content was produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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