Months of supply hit a 10-year high and rates passed 7%. Rebuild your seller updates for a slower market

Three releases in two weeks describe the same market: more homes for sale, slower contracts and more expensive money. For a solo agent with listings, that means more sellers asking what is going on. Answer the question before they ask it.

What the numbers say

Supply. NAR’s existing-home sales report on September 10 put August sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million, down 2.0% from July and 1.2% from a year earlier. Inventory rose to 1.62 million homes, a 4.9-month supply. NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, called it the highest level in over ten years. Median time on market was 31 days, and the median existing-home price was $429,100, up 1.6% from a year earlier.

Contracts. On September 17, NAR reported that pending home sales rose 0.3% in August but were down 4.7% from a year earlier, with annual declines in all four regions. Yun said contract signings nationally are running roughly 30% below the years before the pandemic.

Rates. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey on September 24 put the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier. Fox Business reported it as the first reading above 7% since January 2025.

National figures are not your market. Your local MLS numbers matter more. But the national direction tells you what your sellers are reading in the news this week.

Why silence costs listings

In a slow market, the listing that goes quiet is the one that gets pulled. Sellers see headlines about rates and inventory, see no offers on their own home, and fill the gap with worry. The agent who sends a clear, short, factual update every week keeps the conversation about the house, not about the agent.

This is a good job for AI because it repeats every week and follows a set pattern. It is also a risky one, because numbers and pricing talk carry weight. So split the job: you pull and check the numbers, and AI drafts the words around them.

A worked example: the Monday seller update

Here is one way to set it up for each active listing. It takes one prompt and about ten minutes per listing once the numbers are gathered.

You collect (from your MLS and showing tool):

• Showings this week and total since listing
• Online views or saves, if your tools report them
• Showing feedback, in the buyers’ agents’ words
• New competing listings, price changes and pendings nearby
• Your listing’s days on market and the local median for similar homes

AI drafts (from what you paste in):

• A five-sentence update in your voice: what happened, what buyers said, what changed nearby
• A short table of the week’s numbers, copied from your inputs, not recalculated
• One sentence naming the next step you already chose

You check before sending:

• Every number matches what you pasted. If the draft added a number, delete it.
• No predictions about rates, prices or when the home will sell.
• Nothing that sounds like lending or legal guidance. Rate questions go to the buyer’s or seller’s lender.

A decision rule for the harder conversation

Some updates should not be emails. Use one rule so you do not have to decide from scratch each week:

When a listing passes your local median days on market for similar homes with no offer, the Monday update becomes a phone call. The AI draft becomes your talking points instead of the message. Bring the comparables and the showing feedback, and let the seller hear it from you.

Pricing is a conversation between you, your seller and your broker. The tool prepares the page. It does not make the call.

Buyers, briefly

NAR’s August report put first-time buyers at 30% of sales, up from 28% a year earlier. Those buyers are reading the same rate headlines. Keep your buyer follow-up factual and short, and send every question about rates, payments or loan programs to a licensed loan officer. This is general education, not lending advice.

What to do this week

• Pull your local months of supply and median days on market, and write them next to NAR’s national figures so you can explain the difference in one sentence.
• Build the Monday update prompt once, and test it on one listing before you use it on all of them.
• Flag every listing past your local median days on market and schedule the calls now, not after the next weekend.
• Send buyers who ask about the 7% headline to their lender, with a note that you are still watching homes for them.

Markets turn. Clear, steady updates are what keep sellers with you while they do.