Yesterday morning everything worked fine. Then I came home from work and there was a sudden drop in water pressure to everything: toilets, washing machine, faucets. When I first turn on the water, the pressure is great, then in 3 seconds the flow is very low, so the pressure does seem to build.

We looked at the water meter and it was not moving. Then we turned off the water main for 15 minutes and the meter continued to not move.

We are on city water and have no water softener.

What would our next step be?

Call the city water department. It's their responsibility to provide you with water, at satisfactory pressure.

Before you call the city, there are a couple of things you can check. 1. Whole house filters? If you have one, remove the cartridge and see if your pressure is back. If so, go get a new cartridge.
2. Water softener? If so, bypass the softener and see if you have pressure back. If so, your softener needs to be replaced or left in bypass.
Before checking either one of those see if your aerators are clogged with anything.
Good luck, let us know if we can be of more help and what the outcome is. Craig

Thanks for the advice! We have no filter or water softener.

It appears that we have no leak since the meter did not move when we turned off the main. And the problem is new since everything was find 24 hours ago... it's Saturday and the city is closed until Monday :(

Do you have any backflow devices in your system? Is the problem also on the outside faucets? Do you have an accessible shutoff valve before the meter that works?

Do you have a pressure regulator on your main line?

Not sure about a backflow device. How would I find out, do I look for anything in particular?

Outside faucets are also low flow.

There is a shutoff valve near the meter and a valve at the outside wall of the house. When we shut off the water to see if the meter moves to detect a leak, we did it at the valve right next to the meter.

Not sure about a pressure regulator either. How would I figure that out?

Thanks so much for the help!

I am asking about the shutoff before the meter because I would like to know if you could shut off the water before the meter, disconnect the meter temporarily, use a bucket or something else to catch water, turn the valve back on and see if you have pressure coming into your house.
This certainly sounds like an obstruction in the line that is letting a small amount of water past it. As a few minutes goes by the pressure increases in your line but as soon as you open a tap it quickly releases its pressure. Obviously, this obstruction is before your first faucet. Whether its before or after your meter we don't know. If you have gate valves a gate might have dropped of the stem of one.

Thanks everyone. Turns out the valve leading to the house had a piece on the inside that broke. That broken piece was blocking the water flow. $60 and it's fixed.

Glad to hear you are all taken care of