The 12 housing markets where mortgage payments are seeing the steepest declines

Aerial view of homes in a neighborhood — Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Mortgage payments are down in 12 of the 50 most popular housing markets, Redfin said.
That’s partly due to buyer demand cooling in some parts of the US.
Jacksonville, San Francisco, and Oakland saw the steepest annual drop in mortgage payments.

Housing costs are falling in a handful of markets across the US, according to a new analysis from Redfin.

The real estate listings site said that in March, the median monthly mortgage payment for borrowers declined in 12 out of 50 of the most populated metropolitan areas in the US.

The site’s analysis assumes a 6.65% fixed 30-year fixed mortgage rate, and a 15% down payment on a home, as well as fixed rates for insurance and private mortgage insurance, the firm said in a note last week.

The decline in payments looks to be partly driven by the decline in home prices in some areas of the US. While the median sale price of a US home rose 2.4% year-over-year in March, demand has cooled off in key markets amid economic uncertainty, making sellers more likely to offer concessions or, in some cases, cut prices.

“Buyers are having luck negotiating because many of the people who need to sell now—those who are relocating, for example—are anxious and eager to sell quickly, before the economy potentially gets even more uncertain,” Ali Mafi, a Redfin agent based in San Francisco, said.

Here are the 12 metro areas where mortgage payments are falling the most, according to Redfin’s analysis.