May 2026 State Home Value Report: The Sun Belt Cools While the Northeast and Midwest Keep Climbing

Two Different Housing Markets, One Country

Zillow Research's state-level data for May 2026 shows a widening divide. Home values are falling year-over-year across much of the Sun Belt and West, while the Northeast and Midwest continue to post steady, unspectacular gains.

Where Values Fell

Florida: −3.3% year-over-year (ZHVI), with inventory down 10.9% year-over-year even as values soften, and homes now taking 46 days to go to pending, among the slowest markets tracked.

District of Columbia: −2.8% year-over-year, inventory down 3.9%.

Texas: −1.9% year-over-year, despite still-elevated new listing activity (7 active 818-tracked deals in-state this period, more than any other state in this dataset).

Arizona: −1.6% year-over-year, homes taking 32 days to pending — among the slower end of the states tracked here.

California: −0.8% year-over-year, though days-to-pending remains fast at 17 days, signaling the softness is more about price than demand.

Washington: −0.6% year-over-year, with inventory up a striking 19.5% year-over-year — the largest supply increase of any state in this data set.

Where Values Rose

New York: +5.1% year-over-year, the strongest gain in this data set, with days-to-pending at 22.

Illinois: +4.9% year-over-year, and one of the fastest markets tracked — just 8 days to pending.

Connecticut: +4.9% year-over-year, also 8 days to pending.

New Jersey: +3.4% year-over-year.

Missouri: +3.0% year-over-year.

Wyoming: +1.5% year-over-year.

Alabama: +1.4% year-over-year, with inventory up 7.5%.

Maryland: roughly flat, +0.1% year-over-year.

The Pattern

This is not a single national housing market moving in one direction — it is two. States that saw the steepest price run-ups and the most new construction over the last several years (Florida, Arizona, Texas) are now digesting that supply, with values softening even where transactions still move quickly. Meanwhile, tighter-supply Northeast and Midwest markets — New York, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey — are still absorbing demand faster than new inventory arrives, and prices keep climbing as a result.

Washington's 19.5% year-over-year inventory jump is the single largest supply shift in this data set and is worth watching over the summer — a state that has historically run tight on inventory is seeing meaningfully more homes come to market.

Source: Zillow Research state-level housing data, most recent available month (May 2026 for all states shown; Georgia's most recent published figure is April 2026). ZHVI (Zillow Home Value Index) is a smoothed, seasonally adjusted measure of typical home value, distinct from median sale price.