64 Major Housing Markets Experience Year-Over-Year Price Declines

Washington DC, United States Aug 25, 2026 ALN: Based on our analysis of the Zillow Home Value Index, nationally aggregated U.S. home prices are up 1.1% year over year between July 2025 and July 2026. That year-over-year pace is up a tad from this time last year—back in July 2025, when the national year-over-year home price growth rate was +0.2%. And it’s up slightly from the recent year-over-year low of -0.01% in August 2025.

• 4 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 1% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2017 to July 2018 window.
• 13 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 4% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2018 to July 2019 window.
• 1 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., <1% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2019 to July 2020 window.
• 4 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 1% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2020 to July 2021 window.
• 2 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., <1% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2021 to July 2022 window.
• 99 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 33% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2022 to July 2023 window.
• 37 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 12% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2023 to July 2024 window.
• 105 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 35% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2024 to July 2025 window.
• 64 of the nation’s 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 21% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the July 2025 to July 2026 window.

In much of 2024 and the first half of 2025, there was a notable increase in the number of housing markets slipping into year-over-year price declines as the supply–demand equilibrium (as measured by inventory) shifted more quickly toward homebuyers. Over the past 12 months, however, the list of declining markets has begun to stabilize and inventory growth has also decelerated.

Back in fall 2025, we expected the number of markets with year-over-year price declines to gradually decrease a little in the first half of 2026. That’s exactly what we’ve seen. It’s still very much a soft nationally aggregated housing market—but the nationally aggregated burst of softening has let up.

Home prices are still climbing a little, year over year, in many regions where active inventory remains well below pre-pandemic 2019 levels, such as pockets of the Northeast and Midwest. In contrast, some pockets in states like Texas, Florida, and Colorado—where active inventory exceeds pre-pandemic 2019 levels by a solid clip—are seeing material corrections, modest home price pullbacks, or simply flat pricing.

Many of the housing markets seeing the most softness—where homebuyers have gained the most leverage since the pandemic housing boom fizzled out—are primarily located in Sunbelt regions or the Mountain West.

Many of these areas saw even greater price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home price growth outpacing local income levels. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose in 2022, markets like Tampa, Florida, and Austin, Texas, faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices.

That Sunbelt softening was further compounded by an abundance of new home supply in the Sunbelt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives to maintain sales, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market. As a result, some buyers who might have previously opted for existing homes are instead choosing new construction with more attractive deals—which added further upward pressure to resale inventory growth over the past few years.

Of course, while 64 of the nation’s 300 largest metro-area housing markets are seeing year-over-year home price declines, another 236 are seeing year-over-year home price increases.

Below is a historical chart showing the year-over-year change in home prices across the 50 largest metro housing markets, with the yellow line representing the national aggregate, dating back to 2000. While the “range” between the strongest and weakest metro-area housing markets right now is fairly normal historically speaking, the “bifurcation” (i.e., direction) itself—the share of markets with rising home prices versus those with falling prices—is wider than normal, given that national appreciation has stabilized into a softer market with growth barely above 0%. And the longer some markets remain in the “rising” camp while others stay in the “falling” camp, the wider the gulf can become between the relatively more resilient markets and the weaker ones.

For example, home prices in the Hartford, Connecticut, metro area are now 28.7% above their 2022 peak, while home prices in the Austin metro area sit 27.2% below their 2022 peak. Some of that “bifurcation” boils down to mean reversion, with many of the outright home price declines occurring in markets that overheated further during the pandemic housing boom.

Note: For the historical chart, we analyzed the 200 largest markets rather than the 300 used above, as some markets ranked 201 to 300 lack complete data going back to 2000. When weighted by population, the housing market appears slightly weaker than the chart suggests—which aligns with the fact that, among just the 50 largest housing markets, 21 (42%) are currently posting negative year-over-year price growth, and nationally aggregated home prices are up just 1.1% year over year, using the Zillow Home Value Index.