10 Cities That are Buyers’ Markets

Even as home prices continue to rise across the country, they aren’t soaring everywhere according to a study by Realtor.com, which found 10 metros where home prices have actually seen a decline.

Of the 350 metros that Realtor.com studied, it found that prices were actually falling in 27 and in each case the decline was led by reasons such as overbuilding in a boom market, mass layoffs or a company closing amid oil-related downturns or a spate of natural disasters.

For the study, the team at Realtor.com compared 12-month periods from May 2016 to April 2017 and May 2017 to April 2018, before ranking the metros that saw the biggest declines in prices.

Topping the list of cities where homebuyers could get a home at a discounted rate was the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara in California, that used to be one of the most expensive markets in the Golden State before a spate of natural disasters saw home prices dropping 11.7 percent. Today, the median home price in this area is $951,000 as home prices are being marked down from their previous highs.

With a price drop of 8.1 percent and a median home list price of $72,300, Pottsville in Pennsylvania was second on this list led by high unemployment rates and buyer interest in new construction, which is hard to come by in a city that mostly has older Victorian residences available for sale.

Wine country in California may not be associated with price declines but again the wildfires of 2017 that destroyed much of Napa means that the city ranks third on the list where home prices are declining. With a median home list price of $823,000 and a 6.7 percent fall in home prices means that what were once luxury homes selling for between $1.5 million and $2.5 million are now being sold and discounted rates.

With a price drop of 4.3 percent and a median home list price of $373,000 Austin, Texas was fourth on this list thanks to a surplus of housing that was built over the past few years. Beckley, West Virginia, rounded off the top five with a median home price of $134,000 and a price drop of 4.2 percent.

College Station, Texas (3.6 percent drop); Corpus Christi, Texas (3.1 percent drop); Anchorage, Alaska (3 percent drop); Houma, Louisiana (2.7 percent drop); and Bismarck, North Dakota (1.8 percent drop) were among the top 10 cities that have seen a decline in home prices.