As the East Coast Booms, Home Prices Are Falling in the West

For the past two years, nearly every regional market across the U.S. has seen unprecedented price gains and fast-paced buyer activity, but as a housing correction takes hold, some markets are seeing bigger changes than others. Major tech hubs along the West Coast have posted a series of price gains since the 1990s, but in San Jose and San Francisco, home prices were down more than 10% from a year earlier in January, and Seattle prices fell 7.5% at the start of the year, The Wall Street Journal reports.

On the contrary, the Eastern half of the U.S. is seeing strong job growth and limited housing supply, leading to home price gains of up to 12% in popular markets such as Miami.

Many economists expect home prices to fall further on an annual basis this spring or summer, as Western markets continue to slide and some Eastern markets start posting year-over-year declines. Metro areas in the Southeast that experienced big price run ups in recent years such as Nashville, Tenn., or Raleigh, N.C., are especially vulnerable to price declines, analysts say.

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