With interest rates going up and record high home prices, the folks over at Realtor.com took a look at the 100 largest metropolitan areas and found where home prices are doing what recently seemed unthinkable – they’re falling. They say these dips are because prices grew too “out of whack” with what locals in many Rust Belt communities could afford. Or, in other cases, it’s not that the same house costs less, rather the lower prices are due to fewer larger homes for sale, which generally fetch higher prices. They do point out that they believe this is not a repeat of the Great Recession when a housing bubble popped and prices plummeted across the country. These are mostly smaller decreases that don’t portend another crash. Indeed…
“Many of the metro areas seeing median list price declines have seen an [influx]of smaller homes come to market, which carry lower price tags…At the same time, several of the cities have unemployment rates, which, while still historically low, are above the national level. [This indicates] that buyers may face steeper affordability challenges from rising mortgage rates.” Said George Ratiu, manager of economic research for Realtor.com.
Click here to read the full report at Realtor.com.
