Price Gap Between Most and Least Expensive Homes is Shrinking, Data Shows

Originally published on February 16, 2023 by Thomas Malone for CoreLogic.

Quick Takes:

  • In November 2022, the regional price differences between median housing prices[1] in the 20th and 80th percentile shrunk by 11.2% from the peak in July 2022.
  • This is the first time the price spread has converged since the housing crisis ended in July 2012.
  • Midpriced metro areas saw the largest home price increases since 2020, but in real dollar terms, several California metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) entered the top 10 most-expensive areas in the country.

Housing prices have increased for over a decade. Following the fallout from the 2000s housing crisis, which ended in July 2012, home prices have posted year-over-year increases every month. As prices appreciated, the spread in housing costs across the country grew further apart.

This level of dispersion hit an all-time high in July 2022, when the difference between the 40th most-expensive MSA and the 160th most-expensive MSA was $268,000. Since then, the home price spread between these two cities has shrunk to $238,000[2]. Figure 1 shows the path of this price range and makes it clear that the housing price spread rises when home prices appreciate and falls when they depreciate.

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