{"id":22465,"date":"2026-07-30T22:54:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22465"},"modified":"2026-07-30T22:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:54:38","slug":"us-luxury-real-estate-soars-while-starter-homes-pile-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=22465","title":{"rendered":"US luxury real estate soars while starter homes pile up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2Fnewspress-collage-zs0gghgv8-1785426763453.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261785412425\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It\u2019s a tale of two markets \u2014 and it all comes down to the economy as the rich snap up luxury pads and the starter-home market goes cold.<\/p>\n<p>Starter-home inventory was up 4.5% year-over-year in the US in May and price cuts climbed as economic headwinds like inflation and hiring slowdowns caused starter-home sales to drop 5.4% year-over-year, according to new data from listings giant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zillow.com\/research\/starter-homes-price-tiers-36571\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zillow<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, luxury listings \u2014 defined as the top 5% of property values in a given region \u2014 slipped 5.2% while sales in this tier increased 6.2% in May, driven by stock market gains.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Cleveland saw the largest delta between luxury home sales and starter home sales. <span class=\"credit\">Shannon Workman \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cStarter homebuyers today have more options, more negotiating power and sellers who are more willing to deal,\u201d Kara Ng, senior economist at Zillow, said in a statement. \u201cThe challenge is that the same financial pressures making it harder to save for a down payment are also making it harder to take advantage of that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First-time buyers also saw more discounts in June, with a quarter of starter homes cutting prices compared to just 20.6% of luxury properties.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Nowhere was the dynamic more dramatic than in Cleveland, Ohio. While the rich scooped up high-end digs at a breakneck pace in the city \u2014 up 23.2% compared to May 2025 \u2014 starter-home sales plummeted at nearly the same amount at 24.6% year-over-year. Desperate C-Town homesellers slashed prices in June on 21.5% of starter homes and 20% of luxury homes.<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland was followed by Memphis, Tennessee, with luxury home sales rocketing up 42.4% year-over-year compared to starter-home sales ticking down 1.7%. <\/p>\n<p>Cincinnati, Ohio, was close behind, with luxury homes sales rocketing going up 32.6% while starter-home sales slid 8.4%.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Memphis, Tennessee, showcased the most dramatic split in the nation between luxury and starter-home sales. <span class=\"credit\">sframe \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Starter-home sales in DC saw just a 0.6% nudge. <span class=\"credit\">Yaya Ernst \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rounding out the top five were Nashville, then Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s striking is that this divide is so large in comparatively affordable Midwest and Sun Belt markets like Memphis, Nashville, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Indianapolis, which suggests that first-time homebuyer affordability really isn\u2019t just a coastal problem,\u201d Ng told The Post. \u201cIn these markets and across the country, luxury home sales are surging while sales in the bottom price tier have fallen. These markets remain relatively affordable when compared to markets on the coasts, but starter home prices here have increased rapidly over the last few years, which has pushed homeownership further out of reach for many buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Washington, DC, was notable as its starter sales barely nudged up at 0.6%, whereas its luxury sales leaped 23.6%.<\/p>\n<p>Bucking the trend, some markets saw starter homes outperform luxury sales.<\/p>\n<p>In Sacramento, California, for example, luxury sales dipped 3.9%, but the city\u2019s starter-home sales nudged up 7.9%. In San Jose, while luxury sales edged up 2.7%, starter-home sales climbed 10.5%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these markets, starter-home sales are rising while luxury sales have fallen, but when we look at inventory, the number of available starter homes has increased from last year while available luxury homes are declining,\u201d Ng said. \u201cAffordability challenges in these Northeast and West Coast markets have historically been driven by lack of supply, so these recent inventory gains may have unlocked new opportunities for first-time homebuyers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Overall, US existing home sales took an <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/09\/business\/us-existing-home-sales-unexpectedly-fall-in-june\/\">unexpected hit in June<\/a> as record-high home prices and sticky mortgage rates kept prospective buyers on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a tale of two markets \u2014 and it all comes down to the economy as the rich snap up luxury pads and the starter-home market goes cold. Starter-home inventory was up 4.5% year-over-year in the US in May and price cuts climbed as economic headwinds like inflation and hiring slowdowns caused starter-home sales to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/newspress-collage-zs0gghgv8-1785426763453.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1785412425&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}