Home prices continue to rise across the country, despite the market tilting in favor buyers.

The national median single-family existing-home price increased 1.7% year over year to $426,800 in the third quarter, the same annual growth rate as the second quarter, an analysis by the National Association of Realtors found. 

“Home sales have struggled to gain traction, but prices continue to rise, contributing to record-high housing wealth,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “Markets in the supply-constrained Northeast and the more affordable Midwest have generally seen stronger price appreciation.”

While almost every region in the United States saw price hikes last quarter, the Northeast and Midwest were far above the rest, experiencing increases of 6% and 4.2%, respectively, to averages of $540,100 and $331,100, respectively. The South saw a slight bump of 0.5% to $372,800, while the West had the largest average of $633,900 but prices fell 0.1%.

“Price declines are occurring mainly in southern states, where there has been robust new home construction in recent years,” Yun said. “Given the region’s faster job growth, these price drops should be viewed as temporary and as a second-chance opportunity for those previously priced out of the market.”

Home prices rose in 77% of metro markets in the third quarter, up from 75% in the prior quarter. But metro areas with double-digit price gains decreased to 4% from 5%, the report found.

Most of the markets with the largest increases were located in the Northeast, such as Trenton, New Jersey (9.9%), Nassau County-Suffolk County, New York (9.4%) and New Haven-Milford, Connecticut (9%). Lansing-East Lansing, Michigan also saw a significant jump of 9.8%.

Eight of the 10 most expensive markets were in California, led by San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, which saw a 0.8% rise, Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine (0.1%) and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (0.5%). Urban Honolulu, Hawaii (-0.9%) and Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk (7.8%) were the other two markets to crack the top 10.

The high prices contributed toward 60,000 home-purchase agreements being canceled in August, according to Redfin.

Homeowners saw smaller profits in the third quarter. Sellers gained an average of 49.9% in profit after transactions closed, down from the 55.4% a year prior.

The report found some home price improvements on a quarterly basis, as the monthly mortgage payment on a typical existing single-family home with a 20% down payment decreased 2.8% from the second quarter to $2,187, but still increased 2.1% year over year. The average share of income families spent on mortgage payments dropped to 24.8% in the third quarter from 25.6% in the second quarter as well.

First-time homebuyers also saw some quarterly relief, as the monthly mortgage payment for a typical starter home valued at $362,800 with a 10% down payment fell $61 quarter over quarter to $2,146.