A buyer’s dream! The cities where home prices are dropping heading into the fall
There could be a good investment closer than you think.
Summer is nearing its final days and, after a vacation season that had a little bit of everything, fall seems determined not to be left behind. This time, the surprise is coming for those who have been looking to buy a home: home prices are falling in several U.S. cities .
The numbers behind this shift were published by Realtor.com , and they show that the adjustment is not an isolated trend. In August, the median price per square foot of homes for sale fell 1.8% from the same month in 2025 , marking the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
The difference also becomes clear when the country is broken down by region. The median price per square foot fell 3.6% in the Northeast, 2.6% in the South and 2.1% in the West, while the Midwest saw no change .
And within all of this, one question emerges:
Why are sellers lowering their prices?
The reason comes down to a combination of more homes on the market and still-elevated mortgage rates , a scenario that is giving buyers more options to compare and more room to decide how much they are willing to pay.
Meanwhile, Jake Krimmel, a senior economist at Realtor.com, has pointed out that many of the areas now seeing the biggest declines have something in common: they were among the major cities that experienced a strong housing boom between 2020 and 2022 .
That is prompting some sellers to change their strategy and move closer to the price buyers are actually willing to pay, rather than waiting for the market to once again favor higher prices.
Which cities are seeing the biggest price declines?
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas: -8.1%
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida: -5.6%
Memphis, Tennessee-Mississippi-Arkansas: -4.1%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California: -3.9%
San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas: -3.6%
Denver-Aurora-Centennial, Colorado: -3.4%
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Maryland: -3.2%
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California: -2.7%
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida: -2.6%
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon-Washington: -2.4%
The No. 1 spot stands out considerably from the rest. Austin recorded an 8.1% decline, the steepest drop among the metropolitan areas included in this group.
And while the figures show where the adjustment is happening most sharply, some markets are still telling a completely different story.
Not every city is seeing prices fall
While those markets are recording declines, other cities continue to move in the opposite direction.
Providence, Rhode Island, saw a 9.3% increase in the median price per square foot , while Indianapolis rose 4.4% and Chicago gained 3.6%.
The difference makes one thing clear: there is no single trend across the entire U.S. What a buyer finds can look very different depending on the city and the kind of lifestyle they are looking for.
That difference between markets is precisely what Realtor.com's data shows, rather than pointing to a broad decline across the entire housing market.
