10 Fastest-Cooling Markets Are in the West

According to the latest Zillow analysis of market conditions, the current market cooldown is happening 30 of the 35 biggest U.S. metros. San Jose, Calif. is the fastest-cooling of those studied.

The real estate platform's Buyer-Seller Index tracks the share of listings with a price cut, days on market, and sale-to-list price ratios. Since hitting bottom in 2012, three trends have emerged for the 35 largest metros: tech hubs took off until 2015, receded, and are now hitting "lukewarm territory"; Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Tampa heated up quick from their market bottoms, corrected in 2014, and then heated up again. Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Mo., New York, and Seattle all had sustained heat until they slowed down in spring 2018.

According to the index data, San Jose, Calif. is down 7.1 points to 2.2 on a 10-point index that compares markets to their own performance over time. That precipitous drop makes San Jose a downright cold market, favoring buyers over sellers.

Even if the locals remember hotter times, to the rest of the world, San Jose continues to appear white-hot — and compared to other metros, it is: On the cross-metro index, it’s at 9.99 out of 10.

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