Essentially Unchanged from a Month Earlier
by Dana Anderson, Redfin
U.S. home prices increased 0.27% month over month in July on a seasonally adjusted basis, essentially flat from a 0.28% growth rate in June, according to a new report from Redfin, the real estate brokerage powered by Rocket. Prices rose 3.4% from a year earlier, the fastest annual growth in a year.
This is according to the Redfin Home Price Index (RHPI), which uses the repeat-sales pricing method to calculate seasonally adjusted changes in single-family home prices. The RHPI measures how sale prices of homes have changed since their previous sale. July data covers the three months ending July 31, 2026.
Flat home-price growth is a reflection of housing market dynamics. Buyers are still contending with high housing costs, including mortgage rates that have sat in the mid-to-high 6% range all summer, which is keeping a lid on demand. At the same time, there are hundreds of thousands more sellers than buyers in the market, which caps price growth.
Still, the slowdown is very modest: Home prices are still rising, and they’re rising at only a marginally slower pace than they were late in the spring. The strong luxury market is one reason why price growth remains fairly strong despite tepid demand. Luxury home prices are rising faster than non-luxury prices; wealthy homebuyers are having an outsized impact on home-price growth, especially in affluent markets like the Bay Area and South Florida.
“Despite the sluggishness of the overall housing market, home-price growth is proving to be surprisingly resilient,” said Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economics research. “That’s partly because today’s market is split in two: Many everyday buyers are constrained by affordability challenges, while wealthy buyers have the means to keep competing for desirable homes. That upper-end strength is helping prop up prices even as the broader market cools, giving buyers some bargaining power.”
Home Prices Are Rising in Most Major Metros, Led by San Francisco
Home prices rose in 29 major U.S. metros month over month on a seasonally adjusted basis in July. Redfin analyzed the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas and included the 49 with sufficient data.
The biggest uptick was in San Francisco, where home prices rose 1.5% month over month. It’s followed by neighboring Oakland, where prices increased 1.3%. Next come:
» Pittsburgh (1%)
» New York (1%)
» West Palm Beach (0.9%)
» Cincinnati (0.9%)
Prices are surging in the Bay Area largely because the AI boom has led to strong homebuying demand. In West Palm Beach, affluent buyers are driving the market, with luxury homes selling for ultra-high prices.
Prices declined in 20 of the metros in Redfin’s analysis, with the biggest drop in Montgomery County, PA (-1.1% month over month). It’s followed by:
» Fort Worth, TX (-0.8%)
» Austin, TX (-0.6%)
» Miami (-0.6%)
» Virginia Beach, VA (-0.6%)
On a year-over-year basis, prices also rose most in San Francisco in July, which notched a 13.3% annual increase. It’s followed by:
» Chicago (9.5%)
» Nassau County, NY (9.4%)
» Milwaukee (9%)
» West Palm Beach (8.9%)
The biggest year-over-year declines were in Texas. San Antonio (-2.1%) is first, followed by:
» Fort Worth (-1.3%)
» Dallas (-1%)
» Austin (-1%)
» Phoenix (-0.9%)
Prices are falling in those places because in each of them, there are roughly twice as many sellers as buyers. That leads sellers to price lower to attract house hunters and, in some cases, buyers are able to negotiate prices down.
In Related News
Cash buyers are beginning to lose some of the outsized influence they gained during the pandemic housing boom, according to a new Realtor.com report. Cash purchases accounted for 31.4% of home sales during the first four months of 2026, down from 32.3% a year earlier, as easing prices, improving inventory and changing market conditions helped more financed buyers re-enter the market.
Cash buyers are pulling back faster than the market as a whole: total home sales fell 8.5% year over year, but the number of cash sales fell 11.2% as the pool of cash buyers shrinks. Price growth has slowed alongside that shift, with the national median sale price rising just 0.2% year over year, down from 1.8% growth in 2025 and well below the 15.4% peak reached in 2021.
“Cash buyers aren’t disappearing; they’re simply becoming less dominant as the housing market finds its footing,” said Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com. “More inventory and moderating prices are giving financed buyers more opportunities to compete. Cash still matters, but today its biggest advantage isn’t just winning bidding wars. It’s also giving sellers confidence that a deal will close quickly and with fewer surprises.”
