First of, what’s a seller subsidy? A seller subsidy is cash offered out-of-pocket from the seller to offset the sales price and compensate the buyer for things like closing costs, upgrades, etc. It’s a feature used more commonly now than in past markets to attract new buyers by lowering the effective “sales price,” while keeping the comps around the area high. For example, a property with a sales price of $600K with a $10K subsidy, is actually $590K out of the buyers pocket! It’s something to keep an eye out for when shopping for a property and assessing comps around the area.

According to the NVAR (and MRIS data), subsidy contributions made up about 2% of total sales prices during the past 6 years.