Updated July 22, 2026. This ranking is by city — a much larger geography set than our metro list. Zillow publishes roughly 21,000 city-level Home Value Index series. Metros blend many places together; cities show where peak-era buyers inside those metros actually live.
Why this is different from the metro ranking:
- Metro ranking = ~900 metro areas; we show the top 25 among the 100 largest.
- This city ranking = ~21,000 cities; we show the top 25 among the 200 largest cities (Zillow SizeRank ≤ 200), still ≥2% below peak.
- Example: the San Francisco metro is about −9% from peak. Oakland the city is about −25%. City data catches that.
Interactive table for all 200 large cities: Home Prices by City. Explainer: Are home prices still below peak in 2026?
Top 25 large cities still below peak
| # | City | Peak month | Peak ZHVI | June 2026 | $ below peak | % from peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Austin, TX | 2022-06 | $695,188 | $507,622 | $187,565 | -27.0% |
| 2 | Oakland, CA | 2022-05 | $967,781 | $721,966 | $245,815 | -25.4% |
| 3 | Cape Coral, FL | 2022-08 | $431,807 | $337,346 | $94,462 | -21.9% |
| 4 | New Orleans, LA | 2022-07 | $305,673 | $247,590 | $58,082 | -19.0% |
| 5 | Fort Myers, FL | 2023-09 | $380,161 | $309,562 | $70,599 | -18.6% |
| 6 | Birmingham, AL | 2022-08 | $166,687 | $139,502 | $27,185 | -16.3% |
| 7 | Sarasota, FL | 2022-08 | $483,890 | $413,325 | $70,565 | -14.6% |
| 8 | McKinney, TX | 2022-07 | $558,808 | $482,599 | $76,210 | -13.6% |
| 9 | Bradenton, FL | 2023-11 | $407,465 | $353,306 | $54,159 | -13.3% |
| 10 | Washington, DC | 2022-06 | $666,346 | $579,159 | $87,187 | -13.1% |
| 11 | Denver, CO | 2022-06 | $617,466 | $538,992 | $78,474 | -12.7% |
| 12 | Hayward, CA | 2022-06 | $964,637 | $842,802 | $121,836 | -12.6% |
| 13 | Naples, FL | 2024-03 | $626,021 | $548,905 | $77,116 | -12.3% |
| 14 | Saint Petersburg, FL | 2024-05 | $402,355 | $355,759 | $46,596 | -11.6% |
| 15 | Phoenix, AZ | 2022-07 | $462,194 | $410,222 | $51,972 | -11.2% |
| 16 | Aurora, CO | 2022-07 | $520,738 | $462,424 | $58,314 | -11.2% |
| 17 | Glendale, AZ | 2022-07 | $455,722 | $407,385 | $48,337 | -10.6% |
| 18 | Detroit, MI | 2022-07 | $86,173 | $77,245 | $8,928 | -10.4% |
| 19 | Peoria, AZ | 2022-07 | $541,119 | $486,091 | $55,028 | -10.2% |
| 20 | Fort Worth, TX | 2022-08 | $333,781 | $300,035 | $33,746 | -10.1% |
| 21 | San Antonio, TX | 2022-08 | $278,427 | $250,888 | $27,539 | -9.9% |
| 22 | Portland, OR | 2022-06 | $599,187 | $540,296 | $58,890 | -9.8% |
| 23 | Chandler, AZ | 2022-07 | $578,030 | $521,563 | $56,467 | -9.8% |
| 24 | Seattle, WA | 2022-06 | $944,834 | $856,052 | $88,782 | -9.4% |
| 25 | Frisco, TX | 2022-07 | $723,670 | $656,145 | $67,525 | -9.3% |
Highlights
1. Austin, TX — −27.0%
$695,188 (June 2022) → $507,622 (June 2026) · about $188,000 below peak
At the city level, Austin’s typical value is even further from peak than the metro reading (−26.6%). Peak-era city buyers are the stuck cohort everyone means when they say “Austin cooled.”
2. Oakland, CA — −25.4%
$967,781 (May 2022) → $721,966 (June 2026) · about $246,000 below peak
The big city-level story metros miss. San Francisco metro looks like a high-single-digit gap; Oakland alone is a quarter below its peak. Hayward (−12.6%) shows the East Bay reset is not just one town.
3. Cape Coral & Fort Myers, FL — −22% / −19%
Southwest Florida’s city readings line up with the metro correction — insurance, inventory, and post-surge demand all show up in city ZHVI, not just MSA averages.
4. New Orleans — −19.0%
One of the largest percentage gaps among big cities outside the Florida / Texas boom towns.
5. Texas suburbs in the mix
McKinney (−13.6%) and Frisco (−9.3%) sit inside the Dallas–Fort Worth metro. City data shows DFW’s cooling is uneven: some suburbs are further from peak than the metro headline.
City vs metro — what to use
- Use city when you care about a named place (Oakland, Austin, Naples, Frisco).
- Use metro when comparing labor markets or commuting sheds — see 25 metros below peak and Home Prices by Metro.
- Use state for broad policy / moving decisions — states below peak.
Tiny towns can show −40% to −60% swings. We exclude them from this top 25 on purpose. The full city peak file covers ~21,000 places; this ranking is the large-city cut.
What this does not mean
- These cities are not “cheap” versus 2019 — most are still way up from pre-pandemic.
- Your house is not the city ZHVI. Neighborhood, condition, and purchase date matter more.
- This does not replace the metro pages. It is a separate, larger geography layer.
Method
Source: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, middle tier, seasonally adjusted, city level (~21,000 series). Peak = maximum monthly value from January 2021 through June 2026. Current = June 2026. Universe for this ranking = cities with Zillow SizeRank ≤ 200. Sorted by percent below peak; included if at least 2% below peak. Updated July 22, 2026.
Browse: Home Prices by City. Related deep-dives: Austin, Florida, Phoenix. Metro counterpart: 25 metros below peak.