Oakland, Austin, New Orleans, Cape Coral, San Francisco, Birmingham, Washington DC, Fort Myers, Denver, Portland, Phoenix, Sarasota, Naples, Hayward.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

In 14 bigger cities, prices of mid-tier single-family homes have dropped by 10% or more from their peaks through August, seasonally adjusted. In two of them, prices have dropped by 24%.

1. Oakland, CA: -24%
2. Austin, TX: -24%
3. Cape Coral, FL: -19%
4. New Orleans, LA: -18%
5. San Francisco, CA: -16%
6. Birmingham, AL: -15%
7. Fort Myers, FL: -13%
8. Washington, DC: -12%
9. Sarasota, FL: -11%
10. Denver, CO: -10%
11. Portland, OR: -10%
12. Phoenix, AZ: -10%
13. Naples, FL: -10%
14. Hayward, CA: -10%

There are many other bigger cities where single-family home prices have declined but haven’t made the 10% cutoff, such as Los Angeles and San Diego (both -4% from the 2024 peak), San Antonio (-8%), Dallas (-6%), Fort Worth (-9%), San Jose (-5%), Atlanta (-5%), Memphis (-7%), Tampa (-6%), Seattle (-7%)…. Each monthly decline gets them closer to the double-digit zone.

In some other cities, prices of single-family homes have continued to rise or have flattened out.

Condo prices have been on the forefront, skidding faster in more cities than prices of single-family homes: Condo Prices Dropped by 12%-27% in these 25 Bigger Cities through August.

Entire pandemic price spike got wiped out in 4 of 14 cities. But in these four cities, the 2020-2022 price spike, though substantial, was much smaller than the price explosions in other cities. See charts below.

• San Francisco
• Oakland
• Washington, DC
• New Orleans.

Month-over-month, seasonally adjusted, single-family home prices declined in 13 of the 14 cities in August (exceptions: New Orleans, no change; Birmingham, +0.3%), topped off by:

• Oakland, CA: -1.3%
• Fort Myers, FL: -1.2%
• Sarasota, FL: -1.2%
• Naples, FL: -1.1%
• Cape Coral: -1.1%
• Hayward, CA: -1.1%

Year-over-year, prices declined in all 14 cities in August, topped off by:

• Fort Myers: -10.3%
• Oakland: -10.2%
• Cape Coral: -9.9%
• Sarasota: -8.9%
• Naples: -7.6%
• Hayward: -7.1%
• Austin: -6.8%

Methodology and data: These prices are seasonally adjusted three-month averages of single-family mid-tier homes in “cities” (not in Metropolitan Statistical Areas, which are much larger). All data here are from the Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), which is based on millions of data points in Zillow’s “Database of All Homes,” including from public records (tax data), MLS, brokerages, local Realtor Associations, real-estate agents, and households across the US. It includes pricing data for off-market deals and for-sale-by-owner deals. These are not median prices.

The 14 Cities with the biggest price declines:

The metrics in each table from left to right: price decline from the peak, month-over-month change (MoM), year-over-year change (YoY), and the remaining increase since January 2000 (since 2002 for Birmingham).

Oakland, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From May 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-24%	-1.3%	-10.2%	280%

Another massive 1.3% month-to-month drop in prices of these mid-tier single-family homes, after -1.5% in July, -1.6% in June, -1.4% in May!

Back to May 2018, having wiped out the entire 24% price explosion in 2020-2022, plus some.

In the decade between mid-2012 and the peak in May 2022, prices had exploded by 236%, which was nuts.

Austin, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Jun 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-24%	-0.5%	-6.8%	167%

Retracing more than half of the 63% price explosion in 2020-2022, with prices back where they’d first been in May 2021.

Cape Coral, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Aug 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-19%	-1.1%	-9.9%	217%

Despite the big drop, prices are only back to late 2021, having backed out only the last nine months of the 76% price explosion from mid-2020 to mid-2022.

These kinds of housing charts are just incomprehensible, other than as a work of human mania driven by FOMO and free money.

New Orleans, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Jun 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2007
-18%	0.0%	-2.9%	108%

Back to September 2020, having undone nearly the entire price spike of 23% between mid-2020 and mid-2022.

San Francisco, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From May 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-16%	-0.1%	-1.2%	233%

Back to where prices had first been in April 2018. The entire 2020-2022 price spike of 13%-plus-some has been reversed.

Prices had exploded in the six years through mid-2018, doubling from $700,000 in late 2012 to $1.40 million for a single-family mid-tier home. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were at $1.44 million. Over the following two years, prices spiked by “only” 14%. So the 16% price decline wiped out those gains, plus some.

 

Birmingham, AL, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Jul 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2002
-15%	0.3%	-3.7%	32%

From mid-2020 to mid-2022, prices spiked by 53%. Only a little more than one-third of that increase has now been backed out.

Fort Myers, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Aug 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-13%	-1.2%	-10.3%	191%

Lowest since February 2022. Prices had exploded by 62% in two years to mid-2022. Only the last five months of that explosion have been backed out so far.

Washington D.C., Single-Family Home Prices
From Jun 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-12%	-0.5%	-4.4%	272%

Lowest since May 2020, having undone the entire 13% price spike from mid-2020 to mid-2022.

Sarasota, FL, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Aug 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-11%	-1.2%	-8.9%	230%

Phoenix, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Jul 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-10%	-0.4%	-4.5%	249%

Back to January 2022, having barely made a dent in the effects of the 60% two-year price explosion to mid-2022.

Portland, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From May 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-10%	-0.1%	-1.1%	222%

Lowest since May 2021.

Denver, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Jun 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-10%	-0.3%	-4.5%	212%

Back to November 2021.

Naples, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Apr 2024 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-10%	-1.1%	-7.6%	249.6%

Just the very tippy-top of the insane 76% two-year price explosion has been shaved off.

Hayward, CA, City, Single-Family Home Prices
From Aug 2022 peak	MoM	YoY	Since 2000
-10%	-1.1%	-7%	276%

Prices in this East Bay city had exploded by 35% in two years to mid-2022, and by nearly 300% in the 10 years from 2012 to 2022.

And in case you missed it: The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, Aug 2025: Price Drops & Gains in 33 Large Expensive Metros. Overall US Home Prices Fell YoY

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WOLF STREET FEATURE: Daily Market Insights by Chris Vermeulen, Chief Investment Officer, TheTechnicalTraders.com.