26 growing cities where homes are getting more affordable

The going rate for a single-family home jumped 5.7% from the prior year to $407,600 in April, according to data from the National Association of Realtors cited in a June 20 report by real-estate listings site Zoocasa. Gains were most notable in the West and Northeast regions, where home prices surged about 9% due to limited inventory and firm demand.

And while houses in some cities have gotten less expensive this year, most markets have gotten pricier — even after property values rocketed higher during the pandemic.

Although government data show home sale prices peaked in late 2022, only 35 of the 109 US cities included in Zoocasa’s analysis had cheaper homes in May than in July 2022.

Even more discouraging for buyers is that in more than a third of those cities, the going rate for single-family homes is over $500,000. That means only 20% of the markets surveyed have homes selling for under half a million dollars and are also getting more affordable.

26 growing cities where home prices are down

Since cities with falling home prices are relatively rare, homebuyers might assume that those markets are getting cheaper because they’re becoming less popular.

However, there are over two dozen markets where property prices have fallen in recent years despite enjoying an influx of residents, according to Zoocasa’s new report.

Researchers for the listings site cited the latest data from the US Census Bureau to see which cities with at least 100,000 people experienced population growth or declines of more than 0.5% between July 2022 and July 2023. Towns smaller than that threshold and markets with minimal population changes were excluded from this analysis.

Since the onset of the pandemic, moving has become more popular. Some families fled cities in search of more space and a lower cost of living, while others flocked to larger markets hoping to meet new people or because their employers forced them back into the office.

Home prices are influenced by a litany of complex factors, including a city’s cost of living, economy, job market, and housing supply, which itself can be determined by construction costs. Population changes can affect all of those elements and, by extension, sway property prices.

Surprisingly, only nine of the 35 cities where home prices have declined since mid-2022 have had their populations shrink, meaning price drops are likely due to supply exceeding demand.

That leaves 26 markets where home prices are down despite sizable population growth. Six of the dozen cities where prices have pulled back most while growing their populations are in Texas, and three of the top six that fit that description are in Arizona.

Those 26 such cities are listed below, along with each market’s latest median home price, its median home price in July 2022, the difference between those two figures, and the city’s population growth from mid-2022 to mid-2023.