Five Years After the Pandemic, Realtor.com® Tallies What the Luxury Boom Left Behind

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Realtor.com (NASDAQ: NWS) reports that, five years after COVID, luxury housing markets show uneven outcomes. Only Minneapolis-St. Paul and Boise City exceed their pandemic peaks, while five metros, led by San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, have fallen below pre-pandemic baselines.

Nationally, the luxury threshold (90th percentile) was $1,283,432 in May 2026, down 1.4% year over year, marking the 26th straight annual decline. The million-dollar listing share remains elevated at 13.8%, versus a pre-pandemic 7%–9%, with about 146,000 million-dollar listings, roughly 40% above the prior peak.

The report highlights a sharp reversal in San Francisco, where the February 2026 luxury threshold is about $695,000 below its pre-pandemic level. However, Realtor.com notes that AI-related equity liquidity events are supporting high down payments and sustaining demand at the top end of the Bay Area market.

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Minneapolis and Boise are the only markets to surpass their pandemic peaks; San Francisco has fallen furthest, but AI wealth is emerging as a counterforce

AUSTIN, Texas, June 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The pandemic supercharged luxury housing markets across the country, compressing years of price growth into 24 months, but the unwinding has been anything but equal. Realtor.com^®'s May 2026 Luxury Housing Report finds that only Minneapolis-St. Paul and Boise City have fully surpassed their pandemic-era peaks, while five markets, including San Francisco, have fallen entirely below their pre-pandemic baselines. The rest sit somewhere in between, each telling a different story about what happens to prices when the pandemic conditions that drove them disappear.

To score each market, Realtor.com^® measured how much of the pandemic run-up remains intact today: a market above 100% has climbed past its peak and kept going; a market below 0% has given back every gain and fallen further than where it started before COVID arrived. Nationally, the needle sits at 59%, meaning the typical luxury market has held onto just over half its pandemic appreciation.

That national recalibration continues: the luxury threshold reached $1,283,432 in May, marking the 26th consecutive month of year-over-year decline, down 1.4% from a year ago. The pace of softening has eased considerably from the 5%-plus drops recorded in early 2025, suggesting a floor may be forming, and at 13.8%, the million-dollar listing share remains well above the 7% to 9% range that defined the market before COVID-19 arrived.

"The pandemic didn't create the same luxury market everywhere, and the correction hasn't played out the same everywhere either," said Anthony Smith, senior economist at Realtor.com^®. "Two markets have surpassed their pandemic peaks entirely. Five have fallen below where they started before COVID arrived. The ones still holding their gains have something the others don't: real reasons for buyers to be there that have nothing to do with low mortgage rates and remote work."

National Luxury Overview: May 2026

Pricing	May 2026	Monthly Change	YoY Change
Luxury Threshold 90th Percentile	$1,283,432	0.7 %	-1.4 %
High-End Luxury Threshold 95th Percentile	$2,000,466	-0.1 %	-5.5 %
Ultraluxury Threshold 99th Percentile	$5,566,377	-2.5 %	-4.4 %
Million-Dollar Listing Share	13.80 %	0.3pp	-0.6pp

Who Kept the Gains
Among the markets tracked, only Minneapolis-St. Paul and Boise City have fully surpassed their pandemic-era highs as of February 2026. Minneapolis posted a relatively modest 17.6% run-up that peaked in July 2023 and has continued climbing since, now sitting 5.0% above that post-pandemic peak. Boise, where luxury prices surged 87.2% during the pandemic, peaked in November 2023 and sits 4.2% above that level.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-N.H. (89.0% of run-up retained) and Bend, Ore. (88.8%) lead among markets still approaching but not yet at their peaks. Boston's sustained performance reflects supply constraints and a durable high-income buyer base in financial services and life sciences. Bend's luxury market tells a parallel story of lifestyle-driven demand that has not faded: the entry point sits near $1.8 million, and the top 1% of listings reached $4.78 million in May, up 7.7% year over year.

Raleigh-Cary, N.C., Las Vegas, and Wilmington, N.C., each retained more than 79% of their pandemic run-ups, all markets where demand has continued to absorb a modest supply recovery. New York-Newark-Jersey City held 76.8%, aided in part by its December 2023 peak, the latest in the analysis.

Nashville retained 66.7% of a run-up that doubled luxury prices during the pandemic, while Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury held 64.7% of its 68.6% gain, continuing a recalibration in Conn. commuter markets that has played out over the past 18 months.

Markets Retaining the Most Pandemic-Era Luxury Gains

Rank	Market	Feb 2020 Baseline	Pandemic Peak	Peak Month	Feb 2026 Price	May 2026 Price	% Run-Up Retained
--	USA (National Benchmark)	$931K	$1.40M	May 2023	$1.21M	$1.28M	59.0 %
1	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	$850K	$999K	Jul 2023	$1.05M	$1.10M	133.2 %
2	Boise City, ID	$699K	$1.31M	Nov 2023	$1.36M	$1.45M	109.0 %
3	Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	$1.85M	$2.91M	May 2023	$2.79M	$2.74M	89.0 %
4	Bend, OR	$1.13M	$1.90M	May 2023	$1.81M	$1.80M	88.8 %
5	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA	$984K	$1.38M	May 2023	$1.32M	$1.30M	84.8 %
6	Raleigh-Cary, NC	$748K	$1.12M	Mar 2022	$1.05M	$1.12M	82.8 %
7	Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV	$799K	$1.28M	Apr 2022	$1.20M	$1.20M	81.6 %
8	Wilmington, NC	$819K	$1.30M	Mar 2022	$1.20M	$1.25M	79.3 %
9	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$2.22M	$3.38M	Dec 2023	$3.11M	$2.90M	76.8 %
10	Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ	$1.30M	$2.80M	Jul 2023	$2.40M	$2.50M	73.4 %
11	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	$750K	$1.30M	Jun 2023	$1.15M	$1.15M	72.8 %
12	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$750K	$1.00M	Jun 2023	$926K	$994K	70.1 %
13	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	$990K	$1.39M	Aug 2023	$1.27M	$1.30M	69.0 %
14	Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN	$899K	$1.80M	Apr 2022	$1.50M	$1.65M	66.7 %
15	Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT	$2.95M	$4.97M	May 2023	$4.26M	$4.20M	64.7 %

Who Gave It Back
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont sits at the other extreme. Its pandemic price run-up was a comparatively modest 15.3%, but the correction that followed erased those gains entirely and pushed further: the February 2026 luxury threshold sits $695,000 below its pre-pandemic baseline, the most severe reversal of any market tracked. Tech-sector headcount reductions, outmigration, and a contracted buyer pool are the primary drivers.

But a counterforce is emerging. A recent Realtor.com^® analysis found that AI equity liquidity events, including employee tender offers and secondary market transactions at companies like OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks, have kept Bay Area luxury down payments persistently elevated, running roughly 6.6 percentage points above pre-pandemic norms. On an entry-level Bay Area luxury home near $3 million, that translates to approximately $198,000 in additional upfront cash. A small but highly compensated AI workforce is introducing demand at the top of the market that runs counter to the broader correction.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (-54.4% of run-up retained) and Denver-Aurora-Centennial (-13.7%) have also fallen below their pre-pandemic baselines, joined by Urban Honolulu (-3.0%) and Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii (-6.3%). Washington, D.C. retained just 3.2% of its pandemic gains, with prices barely above February 2020 levels, a reflection of ongoing uncertainty tied to federal employment concentration in the metro.

Markets That Have Given Back the Most

Rank	Market	Feb 2020 Baseline	Pandemic Peak	Peak Month	Feb 2026 Price	May 2026 Price	% Run-Up Retained
--	USA (National Benchmark)	$931K	$1.40M	May 2023	$1.21M	$1.28M	59.0 %
1	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$3.19M	$3.68M	May 2023	$2.50M	$2.69M	-142.0 %
2	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$3.74M	$4.19M	Apr 2023	$3.50M	$3.49M	-54.4 %
3	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$1.40M	$1.85M	Jan 2022	$1.33M	$1.35M	-13.7 %
4	Kahului-Wailuku, HI	$4.39M	$7.01M	Aug 2023	$4.23M	$3.95M	-6.3 %
5	Urban Honolulu, HI	$2.32M	$3.32M	Aug 2021	$2.29M	$2.11M	-3.0 %
6	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$1.44M	$1.80M	Jun 2023	$1.45M	$1.50M	3.2 %
7	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	$893K	$1.20M	May 2023	$911K	$990K	5.9 %
8	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$2.70M	$3.90M	Jul 2023	$2.85M	$2.85M	13.3 %
9	Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA	$2.80M	$4.25M	May 2023	$3.00M	$3.13M	13.9 %
10	Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$750K	$974K	May 2021	$794K	$827K	19.7 %
11	Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	$823K	$1.17M	Jun 2023	$898K	$1.07M	22.0 %
12	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	$1.42M	$1.73M	Feb 2021	$1.50M	$1.45M	25.4 %
13	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$3.90M	$5.00M	May 2023	$4.21M	$4.19M	28.1 %
14	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$1.63M	$2.34M	Apr 2023	$1.84M	$2.09M	29.0 %
15	Jacksonville, FL	$797K	$1.12M	Apr 2022	$924K	$993K	39.1 %

The Million-Dollar Market in Context
Before the pandemic, the national share of million-dollar listings ranged between roughly 7% and 9%. That figure surged to a peak of 15.4% in May 2023 and, at 13.8% in May 2026, remains well above any pre-pandemic reading. The absolute count of million-dollar listings nationally is just over 146,000, roughly 40% above the pre-pandemic peak, even as total inventory remains below pre-pandemic highs.

Methodology
All data in this report is sourced from Realtor.com^® listing trends as of May 2026, reflecting active inventory of existing homes, including single-family residences, condos, townhomes, row homes, and co-ops. Listings reflect only those provided by MLS platforms to Realtor.com^® via a listing feed. New-construction listings are excluded unless actively listed on participating MLSs.

Luxury segmentation is based on market-specific price percentiles, with the 90th percentile representing entry-level luxury, the 95th percentile marking high-end luxury, and the 99th percentile indicating ultraluxury. All calculations are based on listing prices, not final sales prices.

Metropolitan and micropolitan areas are defined using the Office of Management and Budget's OMB-2023 delineations, with Claritas 2025 household estimates used for relative comparisons. Where appropriate, we limited analysis to metros or micros with a minimum threshold of active million-dollar listings on average over the past year to ensure meaningful comparisons.

Historical listing trend data extends to July 2016, but year-over-year comparisons in this report use May 2025 as the baseline.

Luxury by the Numbers

90th percentile = Entry-level luxury (top 10% of prices)

95th percentile = High-end luxury

99th percentile = Ultraluxury (often rare or custom properties)

About Realtor.com^®
For over 30 years, Realtor.com^® has connected buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights, professional guidance and powerful tools to help them find their perfect home. Recognized as the No. 1 real estate site REALTOR^® agents recommend, Realtor.com^® delivers consumer connections and a robust suite of marketing tools to support business growth. Realtor.com^® is operated by News Corp [Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc.

Media contact: Emily Do, press@realtor.com

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/five-years-after-the-pandemic-realtorcom-tallies-what-the-luxury-boom-left-behind-302795650.html

SOURCE Realtor.com

FAQ

What are the key findings of Realtor.com’s May 2026 luxury housing report for News Corp (NWS) investors?

Realtor.com’s May 2026 luxury report shows uneven post-pandemic price retention across U.S. metros. According to Realtor.com, only Minneapolis-St. Paul and Boise City exceed prior peaks, while San Francisco and several other markets have fallen below pre-pandemic luxury baselines, reshaping national high-end housing dynamics.

How has the national luxury home threshold changed by May 2026, according to Realtor.com and what could this mean for NWS?

The national luxury threshold reached $1,283,432 in May 2026, down 1.4% year over year. According to Realtor.com, this marks the 26th consecutive annual decline, though the pace of softening has slowed, suggesting a possible price floor in the high-end housing segment.

Which U.S. luxury markets retained the most pandemic-era gains in Realtor.com’s May 2026 report relevant to NWS?

Minneapolis-St. Paul and Boise City retained and surpassed all their pandemic-era luxury price gains. According to Realtor.com, Minneapolis now sits 5.0% above its post-pandemic peak, while Boise is 4.2% above, outperforming the national benchmark retention of 59.0% of gains.

How badly has San Francisco’s luxury market corrected by 2026, based on Realtor.com data watched by NWS shareholders?

San Francisco’s luxury market has reversed all pandemic gains and fallen below pre-COVID levels. According to Realtor.com, the February 2026 luxury threshold stands about $695,000 under its pre-pandemic baseline, the steepest reversal among tracked markets despite emerging AI-driven high-end demand.

What role does AI wealth play in Bay Area luxury housing in Realtor.com’s May 2026 analysis for NWS observers?

AI-related equity liquidity events are sustaining larger down payments in Bay Area luxury housing. According to Realtor.com, AI-driven cash has kept down payments roughly 6.6 percentage points above pre-pandemic norms, adding about $198,000 in upfront cash on a $3 million entry-level luxury home.

How common are million-dollar listings in May 2026 according to Realtor.com, and why might NWS investors care?

Million-dollar listings account for 13.8% of U.S. inventory in May 2026, above pre-COVID levels. According to Realtor.com, there are just over 146,000 such listings, roughly 40% higher than the pre-pandemic peak despite total inventory still running lower than historic norms.