Compass CEO Says 42% of Homes Took a Price Cut

Compass CEO Says 42% of Homes Took a Price Cut

Joel South

Thu, September 10, 2026 at 8:32 PM GMT+3 4 min read

• COMP +3.75%

Quick Read

• Reffkin touts 42% of homes taking price cuts as buyer-friendly, but home values hit a record while COMP stock has dropped 15%.

• Entry-level homes under $250,000 are down 10% while luxury homes above $1 million are up 4%, driven by all-cash buyers riding stock market gains.

• Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and Compass didn't make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat COMP. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut.

Compass (NYSE:COMP) CEO Robert Reffkin went on CNBC this morning with a striking data point and a buyer-friendly pitch. He said 42% of homes on the market in September have taken a price cut, the highest share in nearly a decade, and called it a great time to be a buyer. The problem: the two outside numbers that matter most tell a different story.

Price Cuts Mask Still-Rising Home Values

A trim off an aspirational asking price still leaves the house expensive. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index hit 336.7 in June 2026, up 0.4% from the prior month and the highest reading of the past year. Existing-home data tells the same story: sales fell 2% month over month in August, the slowest pace in 14 months, yet prices are still up 1.6% year over year.

Financing costs have moved the wrong way for buyers too. The 10-year Treasury yield hit 4.80% on Sept. 8, 2026, a one-year high sitting in the 99.6th percentile of the trailing year, which is why 30-year mortgage rates are at their highest level in more than a year. Reffkin misspoke on air calling mortgage rates an all-time high; the CNBC anchor corrected the framing to a one-year high.

Free Report, Just Released

Why Didn't COMP Make The Top 10 List?

24/7 Wall St has helped investors make money for over two decades, and our top analysts just finished ranking the definitive Top 10 Stocks To Buy Now. Not the ten biggest companies. Not the ten everyone is arguing about. The ten best stocks to buy right now.

And COMP didn't make the cut!

The report is free, and you can see why we think each stock is a top investment today.

Enter Your Email and See the Ten →

A Sharply Bifurcated Housing Market

The pain is concentrated at the bottom. Reffkin said homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 are down 10%, while homes at $1 million and above are up 4%, because high-end buyers are paying all cash with the stock market at an all-time high. The wealth-effect buyer is winning; the mortgage-dependent buyer is getting squeezed.

That bifurcation shows up in Compass's own numbers. On the Aug. 4 earnings call, Reffkin said "the wealth effect created by a record stock market in a growing U.S. economy has been a driver of demand for our business and is helping offset the rise in interest rates." Compass's average selling price appreciated 8%, with the average price just over $1 million. In San Francisco, 140 transactions in the first half closed at least $1 million above asking, versus 8 in the same period a year earlier.

Wall Street's Verdict on the Brokerage

Q2 was strong on the surface: revenue of $4.31 billion beat consensus by 4.70%, up 109.07% year over year on the Anywhere Real Estate merger, with adjusted EBITDA of $363 million and brokerage GTV up 15.9% year over year on a pro forma basis versus a market up 6%. But EPS of $0.11 missed the $0.2497 estimate by 55.95%, and Q3 revenue guidance of $3.85 billion to $4.05 billion pointed to a sequential slowdown.

Investors are voting with their feet. COMP trades at $10.52, down 15.16% over the past month from $12.40 on Aug. 10. Reffkin's read on the buyer is optimistic; his own stock tells a different story.

Got $1,000? Before You Buy COMP, Read This

If you have cash sitting in your account right now, give this two minutes. After more than two decades of helping investors beat the market, our top analysts at 24/7 Wall St. put together a definitive report on the Top 10 Stocks To Buy Today. And COMP wasn't one of them.

They combed the entire market. It's not 10 ideas, not 10 stocks everyone is talking about, it's what their research points to as the 10 best stocks to buy right now, and it's free. Read more here and see which stocks made the list -->>

Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.