Not every major market in the U.S. is following the trend of escalating prices in a tight market. On Tuesday, GOBankingRates named nine major metro markets in which housing prices are sharply down [1] since last year.
GOBankingRates surveyed the 250 largest U.S. cities by population to determine where home prices have fallen most year-over-year, according to Zillow [2]'s most recent figures. Nine major cities saw prices fall by $5,000 or more, with cities clustered in the South, especially Texas.
Texas featured four metros with plummeting media prices, including the market seeing the biggest falloff. Sugar Land, part of the larger Houston metro area, has seen median home listing prices drop more than $46,000 over the past two years. In December 2015, the median listing in Sugar Land was nearly $447,000, the city’s peak. By this past April, the median was just below $400,000. Sugar Land has lost $16,000 on its median listing price since April 2016.
Houston itself was the number four city to see prices drop since last year, according to GOBankingRates. Median prices dropped nearly $11,000 (to $319,000) between April 2016 and April 2017. Adding to Houston’s woes is the fact that ne starts are down and predicted to stay there into next year.
McAllen, Texas’ southernmost major metro, just across the Rio Grande from Mexico saw median prices drop $15,000 year over year and new home closings are down, but GOBankingRates wrote: “it's difficult to say if this is part of a larger trend or just a hiccup.” Prices in McAllen have a tendency to fluctuate in large waves, and the city’s housing market and economy are closely tied to the border economy, which is often unpredictable.
Round Rock, which is part of the Austin metro area, was the fourth Texas city to make the list. There median prices dropped a comparatively modest $5,100 (to $309,000) year over year. According to the report, though, falling home prices in Round Rock are most likely temporary.
Outside of Texas, ever-volatile Miami saw the largest year over year drop. The city’s median price was down $15,000 from last year’s $450,000. Anchorage saw median prices drop $9,700 to just below $315,000 this year. Montgomery, Ala., has seen a $5,000 drop to $119,000. Columbus, Georgia, and Newark, Del., also saw $5,000 drops, to $115,000 and $215,000, respectively.
Home prices in Columbus have been falling for longer than the past year, according to the report. In April 2014, the median listing price stood at $134,900. It dropped to $129,900 by April 2015, then declined nearly $10,000 over the next year. From 2014 to 2017, the median listing price has declined by nearly 15 percent.