Home prices have fallen in the West this year more than any other region of the country, due to unprecedented inventories, according to a new study just released by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Active inventories over a 6-year period, from 2019 to today, have averaged around 14%. The only other region with such an inventory stock was seen in the South with an 11% inventory.
None of the nation’s other regions came close, with the Northeast presenting inventories that are 52% below where they were six years ago; and the Midwest 26% below. As a result, prices grew from 3.3% to 10% in all the Northeast markets studied by the Harvard researchers, while the Midwest markets were up on average by 2.1% to 7.3%.
Despite regional variations, the overall national trend appears just marginally promising for would-be homebuyers, with prices up by 2.2% as of this spring, compared to 5.9% in May of 2024.
“Even with this downtick,” the report asserts, “national home prices are still 57% higher than in 2019.”
Home price increases of between 4% and 10% showed the market picture between the end of the Great Recession and the beginning of the pandemic economy. Starting in late 2020 and continuing into early 2023, the rise ranged anywhere from 10% to just over 20%.
Exactly 29 of the nation’s one hundred largest markets reported annual home price declines in the second quarter of this year. That figure, notes the Harvard study, comprises the “most since mid-2023, when rising interest rates cooled markets substantially.”
Overall, says the study, despite the sporadic regional decline in home prices, the national elevated prices continue to present a “formidable barrier to homeownership, particularly amid high interest rates and economic uncertainty. Would-be homebuyers are increasingly sidelined, while first-time buyers are all but locked out.”
September 12, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Image courtesy Pixabay
