Homes that sit don't just sell slower. They sell for less.
We pulled every closed sale in five South Bay and Westside submarkets over the last 60 days and sorted them one way: how long they took. The spread between the fast ones and the slow ones is not small, and it is not noise.
852 closed sales · 1,127 active listings · July 15 – September 14, 2026 · Beach Cities, Torrance/Hawthorne, Santa Monica/Venice, Culver City/Marina del Rey/Playa, Westchester
Team Goeglein · Fidelity National Title · September 15, 2026
of the original asking price, on average
404 sales · 78.5% closed at or above ask · 0 had cut their price
of the original asking price, on average
156 sales · 19.2% closed at or above ask · 76.9% had cut their price
On a $1,500,000 asking price, that gap is about $196,000. The market pays a premium for a home priced where buyers already are — and charges for the time it takes to find out you were wrong.
What sellers actually got
Average sale price as a percent of the original list price. The line at 100% is what the seller first asked.
| Days on market | Closed sales | % of original ask | % of final ask | Closed at or above ask | Had cut the price | Avg. sale price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–7 days | 249 | 102.4% | 101.8% | 81.1% | 0.0% | $2,002,635 |
| 8–14 days | 155 | 103.2% | 103.1% | 74.2% | 0.0% | $1,900,103 |
| 15–30 days | 162 | 98.2% | 98.9% | 43.2% | 14.3% | $1,666,737 |
| 31–60 days | 130 | 94.5% | 97.4% | 30.0% | 46.5% | $1,846,226 |
| 61–90 days | 75 | 91.8% | 96.6% | 24.0% | 69.3% | $1,886,441 |
| 90+ days | 81 | 87.8% | 95.3% | 14.8% | 84.0% | $2,356,252 |
| All closed sales | 852 | 97.9% | 99.8% | 53.5% | 25.7% | $1,919,639 |
Read it left to right and the pattern is monotonic. Every extra bucket of market time costs the seller ground against their own asking price. Nothing sold in the first two weeks had taken a price cut. By 90 days, 84% had.
Note the average sale price column. The homes that sat longest were also the most expensive ones, averaging $2.36M against $1.67M in the fastest-moving bucket. So part of this raw gap is a price-tier effect, not pure timing. That is exactly why the next section splits it by price band — where the penalty holds inside every tier, and gets worse as you go up.
The market's own correction rate
Share of the 1,127 currently active listings that have already cut their price, by days on market.
| Days on market | Active listings | Share of inventory | Already cut | Avg. list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–7 days | 179 | 15.9% | 1.1% | $2,189,199 |
| 8–14 days | 61 | 5.4% | 3.3% | $1,632,586 |
| 15–30 days | 180 | 16.0% | 14.4% | $2,105,162 |
| 31–60 days | 261 | 23.2% | 32.3% | $2,000,826 |
| 61–90 days | 172 | 15.3% | 52.6% | $2,298,225 |
| 90+ days | 274 | 24.3% | 63.7% | $3,153,368 |
| All active listings | 1,127 | 100% | 33.6% | $2,353,076 |
Almost 40% of everything on the market right now has been sitting more than 60 days. Past the 90-day mark, 63.7% have already cut at least once. Based on what closed, most of those sellers are heading toward a number that starts with an 8 or a 9 in front of their original ask.
Same pattern, every submarket
Average sale price as a percent of original list, split by how long the home took.
| Submarket | Closed sales | Sold ≤14 days | Their % of ask | Sold 60+ days | Their % of ask | Gap | Active 60+ days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beach Cities | 240 | 51.2% | 101.8% | 17.1% | 91.2% | 10.5 pts | 43.5% |
| Torrance / Hawthorne | 263 | 53.2% | 103.1% | 11.0% | 92.1% | 10.9 pts | 35.3% |
| Westchester | 48 | 52.1% | 101.7% | 16.7% | 90.8% | 10.9 pts | 33.3% |
| Culver City / MDR / Playa | 152 | 34.9% | 103.8% | 25.7% | 91.0% | 12.9 pts | 41.2% |
| Santa Monica / Venice | 149 | 42.3% | 103.6% | 26.2% | 84.8% | 18.8 pts | 39.6% |
Santa Monica and Venice show the widest spread at 18.8 points. Torrance and Hawthorne move fastest — 53.2% of sales there closed inside two weeks. The shape holds everywhere. Only the size of the penalty changes.
The gap widens as you go up
| Sale price band | Sold ≤14 days | % of original ask | Sold 60+ days | % of original ask | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1.2M | 108 sales | 101.9% | 61 sales | 90.0% | 11.9 pts |
| $1.2M – $2M | 126 sales | 102.5% | 41 sales | 89.9% | 12.6 pts |
| $2M – $3.5M | 74 sales | 104.4% | 34 sales | 90.2% | 14.2 pts |
| $3.5M and up | 36 sales | 103.0% | 20 sales | 87.7% | 15.3 pts |
This is the table that does the real work. Compare homes only against others in their own price range and the penalty is still there in every tier — so it isn't just that expensive homes take longer. Under $1.2M, the penalty for sitting is 11.9 points. Above $3.5M, it's 15.3. Fewer buyers at the top means less margin for a wrong number.
What a price cut actually costs
| Sales | Avg. days on market | % of original ask | Closed at or above final ask | Avg. $/sq ft | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Never cut the price | 587 | 19.7 | 100.7% | 59.1% | $1,023 |
| Cut the price at least once | 203 | 84.8 | 89.8% | 24.1% | $939 |
Of the 790 sales where both the original and final asking price were reported, 203 had cut at least once. Those homes took more than four times as long and landed 11 points lower against their first number.
A price cut isn't a correction. It's a receipt for the weeks spent finding out the first number was wrong — and buyers read it that way.
Four ways to use this
78.5% of homes that sold inside 14 days closed at or above ask. That window is where competition lives. Everything after it is negotiation from a weaker position.
Among active listings past 60 days, more than half have already cut. Agreeing on a day-21 review at the listing table is a strategy. Doing it on day 75 is damage control.
The spread ranges from 10.5 points in the Beach Cities to 18.8 in Santa Monica and Venice. Bring the number for the street you're standing on.
Almost 40% of current inventory has been sitting more than 60 days. Those sellers are already living the first half of this data. You have the second half.
Common questions
Do homes that sit on the market sell for less?
In this South Bay and Westside sample, yes. Across 852 closed sales between July 15 and September 14, 2026, homes that sold in 14 days or less averaged 102.8% of their original asking price, while homes that took 60 or more days averaged 89.7% — a gap of 13.0 points.
How much does a price cut cost a seller?
Of the 790 closed sales reporting both an original and a final list price, the 203 that cut at least once took an average of 84.8 days versus 19.7 days, and closed at 89.8% of their original ask versus 100.7% for homes that never cut.
Which South Bay or Westside submarket penalizes sitting the most?
Santa Monica and Venice, with an 18.8-point spread between homes that sold in 14 days or less and homes that took 60 or more days. Beach Cities show the narrowest spread at 10.5 points.
Is the days-on-market penalty just because expensive homes take longer?
Split by price band, the penalty holds inside every tier and grows with price — 11.9 points under $1.2M and 15.3 points above $3.5M. Adjusting for size, homes that sold inside two weeks averaged $1,045 per square foot against $987 for homes that took 60 or more days.
Want these numbers cut for a specific neighborhood before your next listing appointment?
Email teamgoeglein@gmail.com and we'll pull it. Matt Goeglein at 310-293-0784 or Xavier "Xavi" de la Piedra IV at 562-217-9933 — Team Goeglein at Fidelity National Title, serving the South Bay and Westside LA.
Method and caveats
Source: TheMLS/VestaPlus market snapshot exports pulled September 15, 2026, covering closed sales between July 15 and September 14, 2026 and all listings active on the pull date. 852 closed sales; 1,127 active listings. Single-family, condo and townhome. Averages throughout, not medians.
Every figure measured against the original asking price — including the price-cut rates — uses the 790 closed sales that reported both an original and a final list price. The other 62 either reported no original price or carried a clear data-entry error in that field (a missing digit). They are excluded from those columns only, and remain in the sale counts and sale-price averages.
The honest caveat: this shows correlation, not causation, and the raw gap is not clean. Homes sit for reasons other than price — condition, location, a hard floor plan — and the slowest-selling homes here skew expensive, which widens the headline spread on its own. Two checks argue the effect is real anyway. Split by price band, the penalty holds in every tier and grows from 11.9 points under $1.2M to 15.3 points above $3.5M. And adjusting for size, homes that sold inside two weeks averaged $1,045 per square foot against $987 for homes that took 60+ days — a 5.6% discount. Price is not the only reason a home sits. It is the only one the seller controls.
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This is market data for real estate professionals and is not an appraisal, a valuation, or advice on any specific transaction.