The price per square foot of homes in Sacramento, California’s capital city, dropped 14.8 percent during a 28-day period ended Sept. 30 compared to the same period last year — it was the most dramatic decline among 25 U.S. metro areas tracked in a monthly index.
The RPX Monthly Housing Market Report for September, produced by New York-based real estate research and analytics company Radar Logic Inc., revealed that the price per square foot dropped in 18 of the 25 markets, with two markets considered neutral and five markets showing price gains above 2 percent.
In addition to the major decline in Sacramento, the price per square foot fell 12.2 percent year-over-year during the 28-day study period in San Diego, Calif.; 11 percent in Las Vegas; and 10.1 percent in Tampa, Radar Logic reported.
Milwaukee, Wis., experienced a 5.6 percent year-over-year gain in price per square foot during the 28-day period ended Sept. 30, followed by Charlotte, with a 5.2 percent gain; Seattle, with a 4.8 percent gain; New York, with a 3.3 percent gain; and Philadelphia, with a 2.9 percent gain.
Minneapolis, Minn., and Washington, D.C., improved their position in the metro area rankings most dramatically. Minneapolis moved up from 17th to seventh on the list (the higher the ranking, the greater the percent increase or lesser the percent decrease), and Washington, D.C., moved up from 23rd to 14th in the rankings.
Atlanta, meanwhile, tumbled from a sixth-place ranking to 13th place, with a 2.9 percent year-over-year decline in the price per square foot during the study period.
San Jose continued its streak as the highest price per square foot among the 25 metro areas during the 28-day study period, with a price of $463.14 per square foot. That metro area has remained the leader in this category for more than two years, according to the report.
Cleveland was the lowest price metro area, with a price per square foot of $92.26 — that metro area has led in low price per square foot for 10 of the past 11 months.
Since April, the price per square foot in the Los Angeles metro area has dropped 8.5 percent, with “evidence of market decline … seen across numerous parameters, including county, price and size range, indicating a general deterioration in market conditions in Los Angeles that is not specific to one market type,” the Radar Logic report states.
Running counter to this trend, according to the report, are properties in Los Angeles County that are selling above the median sales price for the entire Los Angeles metro area — the price per square foot of those properties is up 5.2 percent year-over-year, compared with a 5.5 percent decline in price per square foot for the entire metro area.
The five leading condo markets are Milwaukee, with a 19.9 percent year-over-year gain in price per square foot during the study period, followed by New York with a 9.1 percent gain, Seattle with an 8.4 percent gain, Columbus at 3.3 percent and Detroit at 1.3 percent, Radar Logic reported.
The trailing condo markets are Sacramento, with a 21.5 percent decline in the price of condos per square foot; Las Vegas, down 12.7 percent; Tampa, down 12 percent; Charlotte, down 9.6 percent; and San Francisco, down 8.2 percent.
*Due to an anomalous delay in certain reporting in the Jacksonville MSA during the period examined one year ago, its year-over-year change may be exaggerated.
Sources: Radar Logic Inc., Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller.
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