U.S. Home Values Fall for the First Time in Seven Years

The median U.S. home value dropped from March to April, the first monthly decline since February 2012

- The typical U.S. home is worth $226,800, down 0.1% month-over-month.

- The median home value has grown 6.1% year-over-year, the fourth straight month of slowing appreciation.

- The median U.S. rent is $1,477, up 2.6% from this time last year. This is the sixth straight month that rent prices have grown.

- For-sale inventory in the U.S. fell 1.7%. There are 26,786 fewer homes for sale than in April 2018.

News provided by

Zillow

May 16, 2019, 08:00 ET

SEATTLE, May 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. home values fell from March to April, the first month-over-month decline since February 2012, according to the April Zillow® Real Estate Market Reportⁱ.

The typical U.S. home is worth $226,800, down 0.1% from last month. The decline – led primarily by large West Coast markets – comes after 85 straight months of gains that brought home values to record highs. U.S. home values have experienced declines only twice over the past few decades: during the recession of the early 1990s and the Great Recession and housing crisis in the late 2000s.

On an annual basis, home values grew 6.1%. But the pace of year-over-year appreciation has slowed in each of the past four months, falling from 8.1% annual growth as recently as December.

Home values fell in 32 of the 35 largest housing markets over April and remained flat in two others. Riverside, Calif., was the only large market that saw its home values appreciate during the month. This downturn has been a longer-term trend in other large California markets – home values have fallen in at least each of the previous three months in San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.

"The widespread decline in home value growth in April – the first in many years – will turn heads. But it's too early to say if we've hit another national home value peak and are at the beginning of a sustained downturn, or if this is just a bump in the road," said Zillow Director of Economic Research Skylar Olsen. "Month-over-month numbers are volatile, and this small decline could reverse itself before the year is out and before national home values go negative on a year-over-year basis. That said, the likelihood that home values have peaked in several local markets is real. The price correction in these areas should continue after years of significant home value growth that substantially outpaced income growth."

Home values have likely peaked in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Miami, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, St. Louis, Tampa, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Portland and San Jose.

Rent prices continued to accelerate, growing for the sixth consecutive month. The median U.S. rent rose 2.6% on an annual basis to $1,477. Rents grew the fastest in Las Vegas (up 7.8%), Phoenix (up 6.7%) and Orlando (up 6.4%).

Inventory fell 1.7% year-over-year in the U.S. Washington, D.C., has seen the most significant drop, with 31.7% fewer homes for sale than this time a year ago.

Despite the drop nationally, for-sale inventory has grown significantly in expensive West Coast markets San Jose, Seattle and San Francisco – this is due to cooling demand rather than a flood of new listings.

Mortgage rates listed on Zillow rose slightly in April. Rates grew as high as 4.17% before ending the month at 4.06%, up four basis points from April 1. Zillow's real-time mortgage rates are based on thousands of custom mortgage quotes submitted daily to anonymous borrowers on the Zillow Mortgages site and reflect the most recent changes in the market.

Metropolitan Area	Median Home Value, April 2019	Home Value Month- over- Month Change	Home Value Year-over- Year Change	Median Rent, April 2019	Rent Year- over- Year Change	Inventory Year-over- Year Change
United States	$226,800	-0.1%	6.1%	$1,477	2.6%	-1.7%
New York, NY	$442,500	0.0%	4.1%	$2,419	1.6%	3.4%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$649,500	-0.3%	1.4%	$2,835	3.2%	17.4%
Chicago, IL	$225,900	-0.2%	3.0%	$1,696	3.5%	3.7%
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX	$243,900	-0.3%	7.6%	$1,646	3.1%	10.6%
Philadelphia, PA	$232,800	-0.4%	2.8%	$1,611	2.8%	-11.1%
Houston, TX	$205,600	-0.3%	4.6%	$1,585	2.3%	3.8%
Washington, DC	$407,700	-0.1%	2.4%	$2,176	2.2%	-31.8%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$283,400	-0.5%	5.0%	$1,928	3.3%	3.8%
Atlanta, GA	$219,600	-0.1%	9.6%	$1,452	4.3%	8.9%
Boston, MA	$465,000	-0.6%	3.7%	$2,401	2.1%	13.3%
San Francisco, CA	$946,700	-0.5%	1.3%	$3,455	1.7%	19.7%
Detroit, MI	$162,200	0.0%	6.9%	$1,228	2.7%	12.2%
Riverside, CA	$370,100	0.1%	4.8%	$1,993	5.5%	6.2%
Phoenix, AZ	$266,600	-0.1%	6.0%	$1,452	6.7%	-1.0%
Seattle, WA	$491,600	-0.4%	2.2%	$2,236	2.5%	22.8%
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN	$270,700	0.0%	5.1%	$1,704	4.3%	-5.5%
San Diego, CA	$590,700	-0.1%	1.2%	$2,650	4.3%	10.9%
St. Louis, MO	$166,500	-0.3%	4.1%	$1,162	2.1%	-10.8%
Tampa, FL	$213,800	-0.4%	5.7%	$1,446	4.8%	4.8%
Baltimore, MD	$267,800	-0.3%	1.9%	$1,754	1.0%	-17.3%
Denver, CO	$407,900	-0.2%	3.3%	$2,114	3.3%	17.5%
Pittsburgh, PA	$143,200	-0.7%	2.9%	$1,105	3.3%	-12.2%
Portland, OR	$397,400	-0.4%	3.1%	$1,875	2.1%	4.1%
Charlotte, NC	$208,500	0.0%	8.7%	$1,346	4.2%	3.8%
Sacramento, CA	$411,500	0.0%	3.7%	$1,919	4.2%	-1.3%
San Antonio, TX	$194,100	-0.2%	5.7%	$1,373	2.8%	15.8%
Orlando, FL	$238,900	-0.1%	7.5%	$1,536	6.4%	5.0%
Cincinnati, OH	$169,900	-0.3%	7.5%	$1,307	2.5%	-1.8%
Cleveland, OH	$146,500	-0.2%	5.2%	$1,168	2.5%	N/A
Kansas City, MO	$192,900	-0.2%	7.9%	$1,299	2.5%	-24.1%
Las Vegas, NV	$279,900	-0.2%	9.0%	$1,402	7.8%	14.5%
Columbus, OH	$192,000	-0.3%	7.2%	$1,366	3.0%	-2.0%
Indianapolis, IN	$166,800	-0.1%	11.5%	$1,237	3.3%	N/A
San Jose, CA	$1,193,600	-1.4%	-2.7%	$3,562	1.8%	38.7%
Austin, TX	$311,300	-0.2%	5.7%	$1,711	2.0%	-4.4%

Zillow
Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connecting them with great real estate professionals. In addition, Zillow operates an industry-leading economics and analytics bureau led by Zillow Group's Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. Dr. Gudell and her team of economists, data analysts, applied scientists and engineers produce extensive housing data and research covering more than 450 markets at Zillow Real Estate Research. Zillow also sponsors the quarterly Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey, which asks more than 100 leading economists, real estate experts and investment and market strategists to predict the path of the Zillow Home Value Index over the next five years. Launched in 2006, Zillow is owned and operated by Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:Z and ZG), and headquartered in Seattle.

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ⁱ The Zillow Real Estate Market Reports are a monthly overview of the national and local real estate markets. The reports are compiled by Zillow Real Estate Research. For more information, visit www.zillow.com/research/. The data in Zillow's Real Estate Market Reports are aggregated from public sources by a number of data providers for 928 metropolitan and micropolitan areas dating back to 1996. Mortgage and home loan data are typically recorded in each county and publicly available through a county recorder's office. All current monthly data at the national, state, metro, city, ZIP code and neighborhood level can be accessed at www.zillow.com/research/data.

SOURCE Zillow