Florida leads U.S. with steepest home-value declines as work-from-home era fades

Florida dominated a year-end Realtor.com tally of the metros with the steepest year-over-year declines in median home values, a reflection of shifting demand as many remote workers return to offices and rethink their pandemic-era purchases. The state claimed six of the 10 worst markets, led by the Gulf Coast’s Sarasota area, where median home values fell 8.6 percent from a year earlier to a median listing price of $478,800, a drop of $36,423.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers was not far behind, down 7.9 percent year over year with a median listing price of $399,900, or about $29,393 less than a year prior. The market has drawn attention for what many perceived as a pandemic-driven housing surge that has since cooled as workers return to traditional office environments. “During the pandemic, many of these areas saw home prices shoot way up because there was so much demand and so many people were able to work remotely,” Sarasota real estate agent and Ron Myers, owner of Ron Buys Florida Homes, told the Daily Mail. “A big part of the problem in this area is people from New York and up North have to move back for work and there hasn't been an increase in value in their homes since the pandemic, in fact there's been a drop.”

Beyond Sarasota and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida’s other metros on Realtor.com’s downbeat list include Lakeland-Winter Haven and Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, each with a 4.4 percent decline in median home values. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area on the Gulf Coast posted a 4.2 percent dip, while the Jacksonville area in the northeast fell 3.3 percent.

Jacksonville-based broker Kati Spaniak said the region’s pull for remote workers has cooled as new construction creates competition for buyers and as some workers migrate back to more affordable markets or closer to urban cores. “We no longer have the influx of remote workers looking for homes,” Spaniak said. “In fact the remote workers here are trying to sell, but there is so much new construction it's hard to even compete for buyers when you have even a slightly older home.”

The broader factors pressuring Florida’s housing market go beyond remote-work trends. Agents say rising homeowners’ association fees, higher insurance costs and property taxes have squeezed affordability even as some markets still face a glut of inventory. Myers cautioned that insurance costs in particular are likely to worsen in 2026, potentially dampening demand even when home prices appear affordable. “Not many people can afford or want to pay these exorbitant insurance rates,” he said.

In several of the hardest-hit markets, sellers have had to confront the reality that bidding wars of the pandemic era are not returning soon. “Sellers need to figure out if they'll take a lower price because the market is not going back up anytime soon,” Spaniak added, predicting a bottoming-out trend that could extend into the spring and summer as buyers pause and developers push more new homes onto the market. While some buyers have remained cautious, the supply of available homes continues to influence pricing dynamics across the state, with many homeowners facing a choice between sharp price reductions and continued market stagnation.