Half Of US Homes Lost Value Over Past Year: Zillow

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. homes are declining in value, but homeowners, on average, are not selling at a loss since there was a significant uptick in property value over the past few years, according to the latest analysis by online real estate marketplace Zillow published on Nov. 17.

“As of October 2025, 53 percent of homes have lost value over the past year as measured by their Zestimate,” said the company. “This share has climbed from only 16 percent just a year ago. This is on the highest share of homes declining in value since April 2012, when the housing crash was starting to bottom out.”

Zillow’s Zestimate is an automated estimate of a home’s market value based on data points including public records, user data, location, and other information.

Most of the value loss has been concentrated in the West and Southern regions. “Most major metros in these regions have seen half or more of their homes lose value,” said a company research report.

As for metros, Denver saw the biggest fall in home value, followed by Austin, Sacramento, Phoenix, and Dallas. By comparison, only three of the 36 major metros in the Northeast and Midwest have had majority declines over the past year, Zillow said, adding that “declines are spreading to more homes in all metros.”

Despite the fall in values, homeowners shouldn’t be disheartened, according to Treh Manhertz, senior economic researcher at Zillow.

“Homeowners may feel rattled when they see their Zestimate drop, and it’s more common in today’s cooler market environment than in recent years. But relatively few are selling at a loss,” Manhertz said.

“Home values surged over the past six years, and the vast majority of homeowners still have significant equity. What we’re seeing now is a normalization, not a crash.”

Based on a Nov. 19 report from real estate brokerage Redfin, the housing market is favoring buyers—”the strongest buyer’s market in records dating back over a decade,” said the company.

More Sellers Than Buyers

When there are over 10 percent more home sellers than buyers, Redfin defines it as a buyer’s market, and says this is the strongest one since the 2008 financial crisis.

Since April 2025, there have been over 30 percent more sellers than buyers, according to Redfin.

“There were an estimated 36.8 percent more home sellers than buyers in the U.S. housing market in October (or 528,769 more, in numerical terms)—the largest gap in records dating back to 2013,” the brokerage said.

Redfin said in a Nov. 17 report that home prices have climbed 0.3 percent month over month in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, and 2.9 percent from a year earlier.

There has been a slowdown in price growth with the increased number of listings, the company said.

“With demand still historically low, the slowdown in fresh supply and the shortage of buyers are largely offsetting each other,” said Redfin Head of Economics Research Chen Zhao. “Fewer metros are seeing month-to-month price declines than they were over the summer, but that doesn’t signal a pickup in demand. Sales are still slow, and many buyers who don’t need to move are staying on the sidelines.

“The sellers who are listing now often need to move, but it’s hard to attract buyers in a market where affordability is stretched and uncertainty remains high.”