The nation’s hottest housing markets have also been among the first to experience swift price corrections amid fast-rising mortgage interest rates, but in a few real-estate hot spots, homes are selling quickly and for near or above asking price. Sellers still have a strong upper hand in markets such as Rochester, N.Y., where homes are spending a median 13 days on the market before selling for a median list price of $265,000, and just one in 17 for-sale homes are seeing price reductions, Realtor.com reports.
Other Northeast metros such as Hartford, Conn., are seeing similar sales conditions as homebuyers from more expensive parts of the country seek out relatively affordable housing.
“The Northeast has been well undervalued compared with other markets—and not just for years, but for decades,” says Lisa Barrall-Matt, a senior broker at Berkshire Hathaway in West Hartford.
Homes in the Hartford area have been priced $100,000 less than comparable homes in other markets, Barrall-Matt says, for so long that she began to take it for granted.
Now, she’s feeling vindicated: “I used to say, ‘Why aren’t prices higher?’ Now I’m saying, ‘Where’s the ceiling?'”
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