LOS ANGELES, CA — Home prices continued to soften across much of the country in August as the housing market lost momentum heading into the fall selling season. Realtor.com’s latest analysis shows that sellers in many major metro areas are trimming asking prices to draw in buyers who are still being squeezed by high mortgage rates.
The nationwide price per square foot fell 1.8% from a year earlier, marking the 10th straight month of annual declines. That pattern suggests the post-pandemic run-up in many markets is still unwinding, even though some cities remain far more expensive than they were before the boom.
Most major regions saw list prices retreat, led by the Northeast
Realtor.com found that median list prices fell in three of the nation’s four major regions in August. The Northeast posted the biggest drop at 3.6%, followed by the South at 2.6% and the West at 2.1%. Prices were flat in the Midwest.
The regional split shows that the slowdown is not limited to one part of the country. It also points to a market where sellers in many places are adjusting expectations after years of rapid appreciation, especially in metros that saw the sharpest price gains during the pandemic housing frenzy.
For buyers, the shift does not mean homes are suddenly cheap. It does mean more sellers are competing for fewer qualified purchasers, and price cuts are becoming a common way to get attention in a market that has cooled from its peak pace.
Austin, Tampa and Memphis posted the sharpest annual drops
Among the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, the median list price per square foot declined in 36 compared with August 2025. The steepest decreases were in Austin, where prices were down 8.1%, Tampa at 5.6%, and Memphis at 4.1%.
Other large annual declines were recorded in San Antonio, down 3.6%; Denver, down 3.4%; Baltimore, down 3.2%; San Diego, down 2.7%; Orlando, down 2.6%; and Portland, Oregon, down 2.4%.
Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel said one common pattern is that many 2020-to-2022 boomtowns are giving back some of the gains they made during the pandemic. He added that these places now tend to have much more inventory than they did before COVID-19.
High mortgage rates are still shaping what buyers can afford
The housing slowdown is closely tied to affordability pressures that have lingered for more than a year. High mortgage rates continue to limit what many households can comfortably pay, especially in markets where prices surged most sharply during the pandemic.
That has left sellers with a tougher choice. In many cases, they are cutting list prices and hoping to meet buyers somewhere closer to the middle rather than waiting for bidding wars that were more common a few years ago.
The market’s current tone reflects a reset rather than a collapse. Homes are still selling, but price growth has cooled enough that sellers in many areas no longer have the same leverage they once did.
San Francisco stayed expensive even as pricing pressure eased
San Francisco stood out in Realtor.com’s analysis because the city remains highly competitive even as some measures moved lower. The city’s list price per square foot fell 3.9% in August from a year earlier, the fourth-largest decline in the country.
Active listings in San Francisco dropped 16.3% in July from a year earlier, which tightened supply. Even so, the median listing price stayed elevated at $908,700, despite a 5.2% annual decline.
Krimmel said the change is not best understood as homes simply losing value. Instead, he pointed to a shift in the mix of properties for sale, with fewer small, expensive homes in the city center and relatively more large, lower-priced-per-square-foot homes in outer suburbs.
What the metro-by-metro changes could mean for buyers and sellers
The August numbers suggest that housing conditions are becoming more uneven from one metro to another. In some places, especially former pandemic boomtowns, sellers are facing more inventory and less urgency from buyers. In others, supply remains tight enough to keep prices elevated.
That difference matters for households deciding whether to buy or list a home this fall. A buyer in one city may see more room to negotiate, while a buyer in another may still face limited options and a high entry price.
For sellers, the data is a reminder that pricing strategy now plays a larger role than it did during the hottest years of the market. The right list price can still attract attention, but overpricing is more likely to leave a home sitting while competitors make adjustments first.
Realtor.com’s August snapshot shows a market still cooling
Realtor.com’s analysis looked at housing prices and price-per-square-foot trends across the nation’s 50 largest metro areas in August. The data paints a picture of a market that is still searching for balance after the surge of the pandemic era.
For now, the broad trend is clear: prices are easing in many major cities, but the scale and cause of the decline vary from place to place. Some markets are simply normalizing after extreme gains, while others remain expensive even as they cool.
The national takeaway is less about a sharp downturn than about a steady shift in bargaining power. Buyers are getting a little more breathing room in many metros, and sellers are increasingly having to earn their price instead of setting it and expecting the market to do the rest.
More on what homes, rents and new builds are doing near you, on RHS Commoner.
