Home prices in the U.S. continue to climb, shrugging off higher mortgage rates and worsening housing affordability.
But in some metropolitan areas, home prices are falling, offering aspiring buyers a chance at homeownership.
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Prices for existing single-family homes rose in 93% of 221 markets, as measured by the National Association of Realtors, in the first quarter of this year.
But in 7% of those markets, listed below, home prices fell.
|
Metropolitan area |
Year-over-year home-price change |
|
Elmira, N.Y. |
-15.1% |
|
San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas |
-4.6% |
|
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. |
-4.4% |
|
Panama City, Fla. |
-3.8% |
|
Boulder, Colo. |
-1.7% |
|
Salem, Ore. |
-1.7% |
|
South Bend-Mishawaka, Ind.-Mich. |
-1.6% |
|
Logan, Utah-Idaho |
-1.3% |
|
Baton Rouge, La. |
-1.1% |
|
Peoria, Ill. |
-1.1% |
|
Shreveport-Bossier City, La. |
-0.9% |
|
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, S.C.-N.C. |
-0.6% |
|
Austin-Round Rock, Texas |
-0.3% |
|
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, Fla. |
-0.2% |
|
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Ark. |
-0.1% |
In Elmira, an upstate New York city at the center of a metropolitan area with a population of about 85,000, home prices are highly affordable. The median sale price of a home in Elmira was $70,000, according to Redfin data. With a 20% down payment, a buyer would only need to earn $34,400 to comfortably purchase a home in the area, the NAR said.
In San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas, home prices are steeper. The median sale price in San Antonio was $269,000, Redfin data showed. With 20% down, a buyer would need to earn $77,500 to afford a property in the area, the NAR said.
In Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., prices were even higher. The median sale price of a home in Cape Coral was $390,000, Redfin said, which translates to a required income of $105,200 after putting 20% down.
Still, prices are falling in various cities in Florida and Texas due to a sharp increase in the number of property listings. These are “states that are really easy to build houses in, and we expect that to continue in other red states where there has been more new construction,” Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, said on CNBC on Wednesday.
On the other hand, home prices continue to climb nationally, despite home buyers finding it more expensive to buy a home, with mortgage rates at 7%. The typical home price, at $389,400, is 5% higher this year than a year ago, the NAR said.
And it’s only becoming more expensive to become a homeowner: The monthly mortgage payment on a typical home with a 20% down payment was up 9.3% from a year ago, to $2,037, the NAR said.
“Astonishingly, greater than 90% of the country’s metro areas experienced home price growth despite facing the highest mortgage rates in two decades,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, said in a statement.
“In the current market, rising prices are the direct result of insufficient housing supply not meeting the full demand,” he added.
As a result, “housing has just hit rock bottom,” Redfin’s Kelman said. “Four million people are going to move this year. That is the lowest number that we’ve seen in many, many years. And it’s just because interest rates have been so persistently high.”
That means “the overall economic conditions for buying a house are rough,” he added.
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