January 2026 Housing Market Report: Where Home Prices Fell, Where Sellers Cut, and Who Could Afford to Buy

The typical U.S. home rose 0.2% over the year to $367,350 in January, according to the home value index, and is up 32.8% over five years. A 20%-down mortgage on that home cost $1,781 a month in principal and interest and took about $95,299 of household income. Typical rent was $1,894, up 1.9% in a year. 20.0% of listings cut their price during the month, homes went pending in 71 days, and 1.16M homes were for sale, up 9.1% from a year earlier.

Underneath that average, the 50 states moved in different directions. Values were falling in 15 states and rising in 34; 29 states were at an all-time high while Arizona sat 8.7% below its July 2022 peak of $462,506. This report reads the state-level files for January 2026 as published, with no modeling and no forecasts.

The steepest year-over-year declines were in Florida (-4.9%), Arizona (-2.6%), Colorado (-2.5%), Texas (-2.4%), and Georgia (-1.9%). Florida's typical home stood at $377,007, 6.8% below its May 2024 peak of $404,529. At the other end, North Dakota (+5.0%), Wisconsin (+4.9%), and Connecticut (+4.4%) posted the fastest gains.

By region, the West carried the highest median state value at $478K and the Midwest the lowest at $271K. The West was down 0.5% on the median state, with values falling in 7 of its 13 states, the Northeast was up 2.5% on the median state, with values falling in 1 of its 11 states, the South was flat on the median state, with values falling in 7 of its 14 states, and the Midwest was up 3.3% on the median state, with values falling in 0 of its 12 states.

Price cuts are the earliest sign that a market is turning. Arizona (25.9%), Indiana (23.8%), Utah (23.3%), Ohio (23.1%), and Tennessee (22.9%) had the largest share of listings with a reduced price, all above the national 20.0%. The fewest cuts were in New York (11.8%), Vermont (13.0%), and Wyoming (13.3%).

Combining price cuts with days to pending and the change in homes for sale, 9 states were cold, buyer's markets (Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas) and 0 were hot, seller's markets. Florida had the slowest sales at 99 days to pending; Connecticut the fastest at 38.

The income-needed figure assumes 20% down at that month's rates and a payment of no more than 30% of income. Set against each state's median household income from the Census Bureau, the typical household could afford the typical home in 13 of 50 states: West Virginia, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Arkansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Michigan, and Missouri. The widest gaps were in Hawaii (needed $192K, median earns $101K), California (needed $189K, median earns $100K), and Massachusetts (needed $168K, median earns $105K).

Renting was cheaper than a mortgage payment in 35 of the 50 largest metros, one per state. The widest gap in favor of renting was Los Angeles (California) at $1,743 a month; buying won most clearly in Charleston (West Virginia), where the payment was $482 below rent. Both comparisons leave out property tax, insurance and maintenance.

Every housing figure is Zillow Research's published number for January 2026: the home value index (typical value of homes in the middle third of a market, not a median sale price), the rent index for each state's largest metro, the mortgage payment and income-needed series, and the inventory, price-cut and days-to-pending metrics. Sale and list prices are the latest available at the time, which can lag a month. Median household income is from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey and does not change month to month. The current 50-state table, map and a page for every state are on the housing hub.