Tucked away in many of the current crop of media housing stories is a line that says the market is getting a little more buyer friendly. Most of the time, the story is about the increase in inventory. It’s a fact and a welcome fact. More homes on the market give buyers more choice, but there’s more to a buyer-friendly market than more inventory.

During December, price reductions accounted for 44% of all the homes sold. Sellers have been reducing their listing price in increasing numbers since during the last half of the year when the sales pace began declining. They peaked in July when the share of reduced listing was 50.2%. During December the share was 44%.

December’s average reduction was $14,545. It was enough to attract the attention needed to get showing and offers. But buyer-friendly metrics don’t stop there.

According to the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) 79% of the listings that sellers accepted last month when through another round of cost-cutting before the deals were final. That was the higher share of deals with price cuts during the year. The average reduction was $15,501, which wasn’t the highest of the year. That came in January when sellers cut the price by $20,624. The next best month for sellers was October, when sellers gave up $20,610.

There’s no mistake about it. Those two data sets combined with more inventory point to a more buyer-friendly market. But there’s a balancing data set comes down on the sellers’ side.

The median listing price in the Tri-Cities region started the year at $299,900. It finished the year at $318,740 for a 12-month average of $311,735. Listing prices increased during the last half of the year when buyers were doing more price reductions. That gave sellers some wiggle room when it came time for a price reduction to perk up a non or poor-performing listing. It also gave them extra powder in negotiations to get the deal closed.

Expect to see more examples in the coming months.