In 12 of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, the median asking price for a newly built home was below the median asking price for an existing home.
And in many other markets, the price gap between new and existing homes was found to be surprisingly small.
Here’s the bottom line to this story, right up front:
- New homes are cheaper in 12 major metros. In these markets, the median asking price for new construction is below that of existing homes.
- The biggest gaps are in Charleston, Oxnard, and Cape Coral. In these metros, new homes are more than 10% cheaper than existing homes.
- The gap is also small in six other metros. In places like Jacksonville, Fresno, and San Antonio, newly built homes were only slightly more expensive.
- Florida and the Carolinas stand out. Seven of the 12 markets with negative new-construction premiums are located in those Sun Belt states.
- These markets are building a lot of homes. Higher levels of new construction puts pressure on sellers to price homes competitively.
Grading the Nation’s 100 Largest Metro Areas
The recent Realtor.com analysis ranked the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas based on two key housing metrics:
- Affordability: How affordable homes are for local households, based on both typical mortgage costs and the share of homes affordable to buyers at different income levels.
- Homebuilding: How much new housing is being built relative to the population, along with how the prices of new homes compare with existing homes.
They then scored and graded all 100 of those housing markets based on how they measured up on these combined metrics.
According to the September 2026 report:
“Ten metros earned grades in the A range by pairing strong affordability with healthy homebuilding activity. Des Moines, Iowa, ranked first with an A+ and a score of 83.4, followed by Raleigh, N.C., also with an A+ and a score of 82.8, and Columbia, S.C., with an A and a score of 75.3. At the other end of the rankings, 13 metros received F grades, with New York ranking No. 98, Providence, R.I., ranking No. 99, and Los Angeles ranking last at No. 100.”
Their report is meant to highlight the importance of balancing affordability with homebuilding to improve housing conditions for local residents.
12 Housing Markets Where New Homes Are Cheaper Than Existing
We wanted to know which housing markets across the U.S. offer newly built homes that are generally priced lowerthan existing resale homes.
So we sorted their 100-metro data table based on the “new construction premium.”
Housing markets with a negative number in this column had a median asking price for new homes that was lower than the median asking price for existing homes.
Example: In the Charleston area, the median price for a new home was found to be 13.5% lower than the median price for existing homes.
| Rank | Metro | New Construction Premium |
| 1 | Charleston-North Charleston, SC | -13.5% |
| 2 | Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | -12.2% |
| 3 | Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL | -11.9% |
| 4 | Boise City, ID | -6.8% |
| 5 | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | -6.0% |
| 6 | Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC | -4.8% |
| 7 | North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL | -4.6% |
| 8 | Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | -4.1% |
| 9 | Raleigh-Cary, NC | -1.3% |
| 10 | Palm Bay-Melbourne, FL | -1.0% |
| 11 | Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | -0.4% |
| 12 | Columbia, SC | -0.2% |
The price gap is most significant in a handful of housing markets, including Charleston, South Carolina; Oxnard, California; and Cape Coral, Florida.
Buyers in these markets are often able to find newly built homes for less than the cost of an existing one. This gives them more choices and more negotiating leverage.
Where New Homes Are Only Slightly More Expensive
The 12 markets above aren’t the only places where the gap between new and existing homes is relatively small.
We also identified six metro areas where the median asking price for a newly built home was no more than 5% higher than the median asking price for an existing one.
Those housing markets are:
- Jacksonville, FL: +1.6%
- Fresno, CA: +1.9%
- Portland-South Portland, ME: +2.7%
- Salt Lake City-Murray, UT: +3.8%
- Deltona-Daytona Beach, FL: +4.1%
- San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX: +4.5%
Taken together, all of these housing markets show that a substantial new-construction premium isn’t a given. It really depends on where you live.
In some of the nation’s largest housing markets, newly built homes are priced lower, or only slightly higher than, existing homes.
Most of These Markets Are Building a Lot
Construction pipelines play a role in this. In many of the 12 housing markets shown above, an abundance of new homes could be forcing builders to price them competitively.
In fact, 11 of the 12 metros on our list had a permit-to-population ratio above 1.0 in the Realtor.com data. That means they were permitting new homes at a rate above the national benchmark relative to their populations.
That pattern is most noticeable across the Sun Belt, with Charleston, Cape Coral, Austin, Greenville, North Port, Lakeland, Raleigh, Palm Bay, and Phoenix all making our list.
When builders are adding a lot of new homes to the market, they have to compete for buyers. And with high home prices and mortgage rates keeping some buyers on the sidelines, that competition can put pressure on builders to offer more attractive prices and incentives.
Recent research has found that builders have been cutting prices and offering buyer incentives in response to the tougher market.
Florida Is a Standout on This List
The state of Florida makes a strong showing in the 12-metro list above.
Four of the 12 major housing markets where new homes are cheaper than existing homes are located in the Sunshine State:
- Cape Coral-Fort Myers
- North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota
- Lakeland-Winter Haven
- Palm Bay-Melbourne
And that’s not surprising. Florida has been one of the country’s most buyer-friendly housing markets for a couple of years now.
Many cities across Florida currently have an abundance of homes for sale relative to the number of buyers who are in the market seeking them.
Realtor.com has reported that Florida’s major metros have had unusually high levels of housing supply, while more recent Redfin analysis found that a glut of new construction is adding to the competition in the state.
All of this puts more pressure on home builders, when it comes to pricing, incentives, and concessions.
Oxnard: The California Outlier
California’s Oxnard-Thousand Oaks metropolitan area is arguably the most interesting outlier on the 12-metro list above, and for several reasons.
Here are the numbers for the Oxnard-area housing market:
- New Construction Premium: -12.2%
- Median listing price: $1.007 million
- REALTORS® Affordability Score: 0.376
- Permit-to-population ratio: 0.44
- Overall Realtor.com grade: F
In this market, new construction is considerably cheaper than existing homes. But overall, housing is still extremely unaffordable and there’s insufficient construction.
Austin, Texas: A Pandemic Boom-to-Bust Story
Austin is another noteworthy market on our list of 12 metros with relatively cheap new-home construction … but not for good reasons.
The Austin-Round Rock metro area received an overall grade of A- from Realtor.com, for having a combination of relative affordability and active homebuilding.
- New Construction Premium: -6.0%
- Permit-to-population ratio: 2.37
- Median listing price: $501,200
- REALTORS® Affordability Score: 0.639
But the Austin-area housing market is also still experiencing a post-pandemic market correction with steadily falling home prices.
From 2020 to 2022, Central Texas cities like Austin, Round Rock, and Leander became pandemic boomtowns, with new residents flooding in from all over the U.S.
You probably know the rest of this story. Austin-area home prices skyrocketed to record highs, peaked in mid-2022, and have been falling steadily ever since.
With prices still dropping, a lot of home buyers are hesitant to enter the Austin housing market, despite all of the good deals on new construction.
It’s Not Happening Everywhere
Our report identifies 12 U.S. metro areas where new homes typically cost less than existing ones, based on the median price for both categories.
But those 12 metros are the minority.
Of the 100 U.S. metro areas in Realtor.com’s data table, 88 of them have a positive New Construction Premium, while just 12 have a negative premium.
In other words, new homes generally cost more than existing ones in 88% of the analyzed metros—compared to only 12% where new homes cost less.
Here are the metros with the highest new-construction premiums:
- Detroit: +143.3%
- Rochester: +141.6%
- Buffalo: +140.4%
- Toledo: +119.5%
- Syracuse: +113.6%
- Cleveland: +102.8%
- New Haven: +102.2%
The Bottom Line to All of This
The relationship between new and existing home prices varies dramatically across America.
And in a small but significant group of major metros, new construction has become the lower-priced segment of the market.
But the most interesting thing here isn’t that new homes are cheaper in 12 places. It’s that the traditional assumption that “new construction = more expensive” breaks down in some of America’s most active housing markets.
And the reasons why could tell us something important about how supply, competition, and affordability interact.
