Published September 20, 2026 in Market Update

188 Brentwood Homes Never Sold. Here Is What They Had in Common.

By Listing Leads

Real estate, Brentwood

I pulled every listing in Brentwood through September 16, 2026. I counted 894 lived-in homes that sold. Then I counted the ones that never did. 188 homes came off the market with no sale, never came back, and are not for sale right now. That number stopped me. It is not a rounding error. It is a pattern.

The homes that gave up first asked $199,500 more than the ones that sold

The typical home that gave up first asked $1,449,500. The typical home that sold first asked $1,250,000. That $199,500 gap is the whole story. Sellers who priced above what buyers were willing to pay sat, waited, and eventually pulled the home.

The first price is not just a number. It is the decision that determines whether a home sells at all. A seller who prices at $1,449,500 when the market is paying $1,250,000 is not just asking for more. They are putting themselves in a group where 188 homes ended up with nothing.

Of the 486 homes that came off the market with no sale at some point, 166 came back and eventually sold. That means they had a second chance, usually after a price drop or a fresh start. But 188 never did. And 132 are listed again right now, still trying.

Above $2M, the give-up rate jumps hard

Below $1.25M, the share of homes that gave up stays manageable. In the $750K to $1.25M range, it was 12.6%. In the $1.25M to $2M range, 13.2%. Those are real numbers, but they are not alarming.

Above $2M, the picture changes. In the $2M to $3M range, 22.2% of homes gave up. At $3M and up, it was 29.8%. That means roughly 3 in every 10 homes priced above $3M never sold. This is the part of the market where overpricing carries the biggest cost.

The common mistake at the high end is treating a home's cost or its features as the price. Buyers at $3M and up have choices. They wait. And a seller who will not move on price eventually runs out of time.

Right now, 60.7% of the homes for sale have already dropped their price

There are 349 homes for sale in Brentwood right now. Of those, 212 have already dropped their price. That is 60.7% of everything on the market. The typical drop is $107,500. The biggest single cut is $1,700,000.

A price drop is a seller catching up to where the market already was. The homes that sold without a cut sold faster and closer to what they first asked. The homes sitting on the market right now are, in many cases, repeating the same mistake the 188 gave-up homes made.

At the current pace, it would take 3.6 months to sell every home for sale. That sits just inside seller territory. But with 60.7% already cut, and more likely to follow, the window for a clean sale at a strong price is not unlimited.

What a seller should do, and what a buyer should know

If you are selling, the first price is the only price that matters. Homes that sold in the first month got 100% of what they first asked. Homes that took five to six months got 89.9%. The gap between a sharp first price and an optimistic one is not just time. It is money left on the table, or no sale at all. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.95% as of September 17, 2026, up from 6.76% the prior week (Freddie Mac). Buyers are already stretched. A price that does not meet them where they are will sit.

If you are buying, the 188 homes that gave up are worth watching. Some of them are the 132 listed again right now. A seller on their second attempt, with a history of not selling, is a different negotiation than a fresh listing. The typical cut on homes for sale now is $107,500. That is a real number to bring to a conversation.