Published September 30, 2026 in Market Update

Homes Priced Over $350K Gave Up More Often Than Any Other Range

By Roberta Robledo

Real estate, MLS Market Update Cleaned

I pulled every lived-in home that sold or gave up in the Belen, NM market and sorted them by what they first asked. Five price ranges. One question: which range had the hardest time finding a buyer? The answer surprised me. Across the whole market, 151 homes sold and 34 came off the market with no sale, at a middle sold price of $253,000. These numbers cover every listing through September 27, 2026.

The highest-priced homes gave up at a 25.7% rate, against just 9.1% in the $300K to $350K range

Homes priced at $350,000 and up gave up 25.7% of the time. That means roughly 1 in 4 sellers in that range came off the market with nothing to show for it. Nine homes gave up there. Twenty-six sold.

The $300K to $350K range tells a completely different story. Only 2 homes gave up. Twenty sold. That is a 9.1% give-up rate, the best of any range in this market.

The gap between the best range and the worst is 16.6 percentage points. That is not a small difference. For a seller picking a price, it is the difference between a likely sale and a real chance of walking away empty-handed.

The two middle ranges, under $200K and $200K to $250K, gave up at 20.6% and 19.6%. Both are close to each other and both are well above the $250K to $300K range, which came in at 14.6%. The pattern is not a straight line from cheap to expensive. The $300K to $350K range breaks the pattern entirely, and then the $350K-and-up range jumps back up to the worst rate of all.

The $350K-and-up range sells for more, but it costs sellers more time and more risk

Here is the tradeoff. Homes at $350K and up did sell for a higher price when they sold. The typical sold price there was $379,950, compared to $310,000 in the $300K to $350K range. That is a real difference.

But the homes that sold in the $350K-and-up range took 73 days on average. The $300K to $350K range took 29 days. And sellers in the top range got back 95.4% of what they first asked, while the $300K to $350K range got 96.2%. So the top range paid more in time and gave back a little more on price, all while carrying the highest chance of giving up entirely.

The $250K to $300K range is worth a look too. It had the second-best give-up rate at 14.6%, the highest share of homes that sold at or over their asking price at 56.1%, and a middle sold price of $269,000. Forty-one homes sold there. Seven gave up.

The under-$200K range surprises in the other direction. It gave up 20.6% of the time, which is worse than the two ranges above it. Cheaper does not always mean easier to sell. Those homes did sell fastest of all, in 16 days on average, but the give-up rate was still the second highest in the market.

What this means if you are selling or buying right now

If you are selling, the range you price into matters more than almost anything else you will decide. The typical home that gave up first asked $19,000 less than the ones that sold, yet still could not find a buyer. That tells you the problem was not just price. It was fit. Homes that sat too long paid for it: homes that took over 6 months got back only 91.3% of what they first asked. Right now, nearly half of the 36 homes for sale have already dropped their price, with a typical cut of $15,000. Getting the price right from the start is the one move that keeps you out of that group.

If you are buying, the $350K-and-up range gives you the most room to negotiate. Sellers there waited 73 days on average, and 25.7% gave up entirely. That kind of patience from a buyer has real value. One thing worth watching: the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.03% as of September 24, 2026, up from 6.95% the week before and well above the 6.30% rate from a year ago, according to Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey. Higher rates shrink what buyers can offer, and that pressure shows up most in the higher price ranges.