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After a couple of years of rapid price growth, US home prices are slowly but surely coming back to earth as higher mortgage rates dampen buyer demand.
With fewer Americans interested in home buying and mortgage rates hovering above 6%, the median home-sale price dipped 1.2% year-over-year in early March to $352,750, according to real estate brokerage Redfin.
Home price declines have been the sharpest in some of the priciest markets throughout the Western US, like San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, and Las Vegas.
"Price declines are more pronounced in the Western US with every major market in the West seeing prices pull back by 6% or more through December on a seasonally-adjusted basis," Black Knight researchers wrote in a February housing report.
Still, it may be a while before those metros feel truly affordable. While San Francisco's median home-sale price fell 11.2% year-over-year in February, the typical home sold there still cost a staggering $1,322,500.
In the metro, that price can get the typical buyer a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom home. In a cheaper market like Chicago — where the median home-sale price is $315,000 — that same buyer could purchase a 5-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home and still have some cash left over.