UNITED STATES, Sept. 12 (DC Times Online) — Home prices are falling in most of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, but the declines are not evenly spread across the country.
Realtor.com’s August 2026 analysis found that the median listing price per square foot fell year over year in 36 of the 50 largest U.S. metros. Nationwide, the measure dropped 1.8% from a year earlier, marking the 10th straight month of annual declines.
The sharpest drop was reported in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas, metro, where the median listing price per square foot fell 8.1%.
The 10 metros with the largest declines
Realtor.com reported these year-over-year changes in median listing price per square foot:
- Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas: down 8.1%
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida: down 5.6%
- Memphis, Tennessee-Mississippi-Arkansas: down 4.1%
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California: down 3.9%
- San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas: down 3.6%
- Denver-Aurora-Centennial, Colorado: down 3.4%
- Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Maryland: down 3.2%
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California: down 2.7%
- Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida: down 2.6%
- Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon-Washington: down 2.4%
The median listing prices in those 10 metros ranged from $299,995 in Memphis to $908,700 in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro, according to Realtor.com.
What the measure means
“Median listing price per square foot” measures asking prices for homes listed for sale, adjusted for the size of the homes. The median is the midpoint: half of the listings are priced above it and half below it.
That makes the measure different from a median sale price or sale price per square foot. Realtor.com’s figures describe what sellers were asking, not necessarily what buyers paid after negotiations or at closing.
The analysis also covers metropolitan areas rather than individual cities or neighborhoods. Some of the areas cross state lines, including the Memphis and Portland metros.
The declines were broad, but not nationwide
Realtor.com reported that median listing prices fell year over year in three broad regions. The Northeast declined 3.6%, the South fell 2.6% and the West dropped 2.1%. The Midwest was flat.
At the metro level, Providence, Rhode Island, had the largest increase in median listing price per square foot, rising 9.3%. Indianapolis increased 4.4%, while Chicago rose 3.6%.
San Francisco’s metro ranked fourth among the largest decliners, even as Realtor.com described the market as highly competitive. Its median listing price was the highest among the 10 metros with the largest annual drops.
Why are some markets falling faster?
Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel said the biggest declines included several markets that grew rapidly during the 2020-22 housing boom. He described Austin, Tampa, San Antonio and Denver as examples of boomtowns continuing to give back some of their pandemic-era gains.
The August report does not establish how much of the change came from mortgage rates, the number of homes for sale, buyer demand or other market conditions. It also does not show whether asking-price declines translated into similar declines in closed-sale prices.
The data provide a snapshot of listing conditions across the nation’s 50 largest metros. They do not, by themselves, show the price trend for every home, county or neighborhood within those markets.
