Home Prices Falling in 22 Cities

Min 1:

Florida homes just gave back a decade of gains in twelve months.

Cape Coral and Fort Lauderdale properties fell over 10% year-over-year according to Realtor.com's latest analysis.

North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton dropped nearly 9%. Seven of Florida's eight largest cities are shedding value heading into 2026.

The prediction came from analyzing 100 largest U.S. cities. Twenty-two are forecast to see outright price declines this year. Most cluster in Southeast and West—the same markets that exploded during pandemic buying frenzies.

CBS News confirmed the trend through Realtor.com data.

Cities that saw huge pandemic demand are watching it evaporate. Inventory expanded, buyers disappeared, and sellers who held out for peak pricing are finally cutting.

Min 2:

Inventory growth killed seller leverage. Markets that built aggressively during low-rate eras now sit on excess supply while buyers stay cautious.

The imbalance reversed—suddenly sellers outnumber buyers by record gaps.

Redfin tracked days on market climbing to 64 nationally in January, the longest span in six years.

Properties sit nearly a week longer than last year. That's sellers bleeding carrying costs while waiting for buyers who aren't coming at current prices.

Western and Southern metros led declines because construction never stopped. Developers kept building through 2024 and 2025 even as demand cooled.

Now those completed homes compete with each other for shrinking buyer pools.

If you'd bought Cape Coral property at peak, you're sitting on double-digit losses before selling costs and holding expenses. Buy today at 10% off and you're capturing instant equity from sellers' panic.

Min 3:

Compare declining markets to stock volatility and real estate's advantage becomes clear.

Stocks can drop 10% in a day.

Real estate takes months to reprice, giving you time to analyze and act.

A Fort Lauderdale property that sold for $500,000 last year trades around $450,000 today. That's $50,000 in negotiating room before you even make an offer. Sellers who wouldn't budge twelve months ago are now accepting lowball bids just to escape.

Realtor.com confirmed seller concessions climbing across markets with inventory growth. Buyers negotiate repairs, closing costs, and rate buydowns impossible during seller's markets.

The total savings stack—price cuts plus concessions can reach 15% to 20% of list price.

Own five properties acquired at 10% discounts in declining markets and you're controlling substantial real estate while only deploying around 75% to 80% of what previous buyers paid.

That's leverage working twice—once through financing, again through buyer's market pricing.

Min 4:

Small investors beat institutions in declining markets because you can move fast on individual properties.

Institutions need committee approvals to chase falling knives. You just need to underwrite conservatively and close.

Speed matters when prices drop monthly.

Lock a property today at current pricing before next month's decline. The institutional buyer is still modeling scenarios while you're already renovating.

Local knowledge protects you from catching bad properties in good markets versus good properties in bad markets. You know which neighborhoods stabilize first. The algorithm doesn't.

Risk worth noting: if prices keep falling, you're underwater faster than anticipated. But markets with 10% declines already priced in most panic.

Further drops require recession-level events.

Min 5:

Any investor with $100,000 can access discounted Florida properties today.

20% down on $450,000 gets you into markets that required $550,000 eighteen months ago.

J.P. Morgan forecasts national prices stalling at zero growth in 2026. Declining markets already front-ran that prediction.

You're buying where pain already happened while other markets still face corrections.

Small operators who understand local employment and migration patterns can identify which declining markets recover fastest. You're not guessing—you're analyzing job growth, construction pipelines, and demographic shifts institutions model months too late.

The combination of falling prices and full bonus depreciation creates rare opportunities.

Buy discounted properties, write off massive amounts immediately, and wait for markets to stabilize.

Takeaway:

Twenty-two major U.S. cities are experiencing outright price declines in 2026, with Florida leading drops over 10% in multiple metros.

Pandemic-era buying frenzies reversed as inventory expanded and buyer demand evaporated.

That creates rare acquisition opportunities for investors who can move quickly. Properties selling at 10% to 15% discounts from peak pricing offer instant equity before negotiating repairs, concessions, and closing cost credits.

The total savings can reach 20% of previous values.

Small investors win because speed beats size in falling markets. You can underwrite and close while institutions debate whether to chase declining assets.

That agility captures value large funds miss entirely.

Market selection matters more than national trends. Some declining cities face structural problems—permanent remote work killing office-dependent economies.

Others just overbuilt temporarily and will stabilize as construction slows and job growth continues.

Move in the next 90 days to capture properties at current discounts before markets stabilize. Sellers who held out for peak pricing are finally capitulating.

Wait until late 2026 or 2027 and you'll compete against buyers who waited for the bottom—except by then prices are rising again.