Buying a home has become difficult due to high prices, rising mortgage rates, and competition, among other factors. However, this difficulty varies by location. According to housing market platform Realtor.com, many of the markets where it is the easiest to buy a home are in Florida and Texas. This is primarily due to an increase in listings and price corrections following the pandemic housing boom. In contrast, the markets where it is the most difficult to become a homeowner are in the Northeast and Midwest, where prices continue to rise and availability remains low.
Unlike many housing markets in the Southwest and Southeast, there's a lack of homebuilding in the Northeast and Midwest, which contributes to its supply and demand problem.
Plus, as new construction becomes available in the Southwest and Southeast markets, and builders use buy-downs to sell homes in the current strained affordability environment, it has created an additional cooling effect in the region's resale market. Many Northeast and Midwest markets, on the other hand, are not experiencing this additional cooling effect, and so sellers there have held their edge.
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