Home prices fall in most major US cities as housing market cools: See where
Single-family homes are seen in this aerial photograph taken over a Lennar Corp. development in San Diego, California. Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The housing market is losing momentum as summer ends and the fall season approaches, with sellers in some U.S. cities cutting prices more sharply to attract buyers.
High mortgage rates continue to create affordability challenges, especially in metro areas where home prices surged during the pandemic. As a result, sellers are reducing prices to meet buyers closer to the middle.
By the numbers:
A Realtor.com analysis found that the nationwide price per square foot declined year over year for the 10th consecutive month in August, falling 1.8% from a year earlier.
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Median list prices decreased in three of the nation's four major regions: 3.6% in the Northeast, 2.6% in the South and 2.1% in the West. Prices remained flat in the Midwest.
The median list price per square foot declined in 36 of the nation's 50 largest metro areas compared with August 2025.
The steepest declines were recorded in Austin, down 8.1%, followed by Tampa, down 5.6%, and Memphis, down 4.1%. Providence, Rhode Island, posted the largest increase at 9.3%, followed by Indianapolis at 4.4% and Chicago at 3.6%.
What they're saying:
Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel said that "One common thread for most markets – including Austin, Tampa, San Antonio, Denver – is 2020-22 boomtowns continuing to give back some of their pandemic-era gains. These are also, by and large, places with much more inventory now than pre-pandemic norms."
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Dig deeper:
San Francisco stood out in the analysis. The city's list price per square foot fell 3.9% in August from a year earlier, the fourth-largest decline nationwide, even as the market remained highly competitive.
Active listings in San Francisco fell 16.3% in July from the previous year, tightening the housing market. The city's median listing price remained elevated at $908,700, despite declining 5.2% year over year.
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"It's not about San Francisco homes losing value, but rather how expensive the available inventory is this year relative to last," Krimmel said.
"There are fewer small, pricey homes in the center of the city for sale. They are scarce and selling fast," he explained. "On the flip side, this year there are relatively more large, less expensive per-square-foot homes coming up for sale in outer suburbs."
Other metro areas with some of the largest annual declines in listing price per square foot included San Antonio, down 3.6%; Denver, down 3.4%; Baltimore, down 3.2%; San Diego, down 2.7%; Orlando, down 2.6%; and Portland, Oregon, down 2.4%.
The Source: FOX Business contributed to this report. The information in this story came from an analysis by Realtor.com, which examined housing prices and price-per-square-foot trends across the nation’s 50 largest metro areas in August. This story was reported from Los Angeles.