Homes in These Pandemic Boomtowns Cost Less Now Than They Would Have a Year Ago

Nationwide, 7.1% of all for-sale homes have lower estimated monthly housing payments than they would have if they had been for sale a year ago, and that share is far higher in pandemic boomtowns and expensive coastal markets. Roughly one-quarter (25.8%) of homes in Austin, Texas, cost less than they did a year ago, and in Seattle that share is up to 23.6%, Redfin reports.

Similarly, monthly housing payments are down for 18.8% of homes in San Francisco, 18.3% in New York, and 15.6% of properties in Pittsburgh, and regional homebuyers are responding.

“We’re seeing a little more movement among homebuyers in Austin right now,” said local Redfin Premier real estate agent Andrew Vallejo. “There’s this group of house hunters that has been waiting on the sidelines for prices to come down, and they’ve decided to start buying this spring. They’re taking their time though; mortgage rates are still volatile and they know they have some negotiating power.”

Home prices are falling fastest in pandemic boomtowns like Austin and expensive coastal markets like Seattle and San Francisco because prices in those places skyrocketed to unsustainable levels in recent years. Prices are now making their way back down to earth after many homebuyers were priced out.

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