The busiest part of the year in terms of home sales is upon us. May saw listing prices hit record highs while the average time a house was on the market has declined. According to realtor.com, by the time the ink is dry, the median list price for a home in May will be $250,000, a year-over-year gain of 9 percent and a 2 percent increase of what was seen in April.
Time on market for the average home is predicted to settle in right around 65 days in May, which is equal to May 2015 and three days faster than April. Additionally, even with the addition of 550,000 listings being added to the market in may, which equals an increase of 4 percent, the level of inventory is still 4 percent lower than it was in May 2015. This is due in large part to pent up demand as new buyers enter the market at the same time buyers who struck out previously in trying to purchase a home return. Site traffic data for realtor.com alone shows a 30 percent growth in searches for homes for sale compared with May 2015.
By using this web site data, realtor.com looked at the median days on the market and the number of views per listing to find the 20 hottest markets among the country’s medium-to-large metropolitan areas. California still dominates the list, but there is more variety than in the past.
Vallejo, Calif., increased one spot and took the number one position away from San Francisco, which fell to number two for the month of May. While the Golden State still occupies four out of the top five spots on the list, with the lone non-California city not being much of a surprise in Denver, further down are a few surprises.
Michigan, for example, has two cities in the top 20 with Ann Arbor coming in at number 11, two spots below its April rank, and Detroit jumping 12 spots to settle in at number 19.
Eureka, Calif., experienced the largest jump as it increased 21 spots from 37th to 16th. Meanwhile, Santa Cruz, Calif., saw the biggest drop, falling from seventh in April to 15th in May. Interestingly enough, only one city from Texas was on the list, and that was Dallas, which retained the sixth spot on the list.
Other cities on the list include Columbus, Ohio (10), Fort Wayne, Ind. (14), Boston, Mass. (17), and Raleigh, N.C. (20).
For realtor.com’s complete list of May’s hottest real estate markets, click the link below.
PB Topical Ref
