Fewer U.S. home sellers cut asking prices in July

NEW YORK Aug 6 (Reuters) - Fewer U.S. home sellers cut their asking prices in July, though the prices of more than 40 percent of homes on the market had been cut at least once, national real estate brokerage ZipRealty reported on Thursday.

The number of homes with reduced asking prices fell 2.8 percent in July from the previous month, Emeryville, California-based ZipRealty reported.

Nevertheless, more than 40 percent of listed homes in 29 markets tracked by ZipRealty last month included at least one price reduction, with prices slashed by an average of more than $25,000.

At of the end of July, more than $8.2 billion in price reductions had been taken across more than 704,000 Multiple Listing Service-listed homes spanning the major U.S. metropolitan areas tracked by ZipRealty.

In July, homeowners reduced their list price on average by slightly more than 10 percent. Las Vegas logged the biggest percentage reduction in list prices, at an average of 23 percent. Denver and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, had the smallest price cuts, with list prices in both metro areas cut on average by 5 percent, ZipRealty said.

Of the markets surveyed, those with the highest percentage of price-reduced homes were Orlando, Florida, at 52.4 percent; Jacksonville, Florida, at 50.2 percent; and Chicago, at 48.90 percent, the company said.

Markets with the lowest percentage of price-reduced homes were Denver, at 31.7 percent; Bakersfield/Fresno, California, at 35.2 percent; and the San Francisco Bay Area, at 37.7 percent, indicating that prices in these real estate markets may be stabilizing, ZipRealty said. (Editing by Leslie Adler)