Tide Turning Toward Buyers

The nation's housing markets, even in the priciest ZIP codes, are shifting in advantage toward homebuyers after years of favoring sellers. Year-over-year, 10 times as many of the 100 biggest U.S. metros now favor buyers.

Trulia's report assesses buyer or seller advantage by studying annual change from January 2018 to January 2019 in median days on market, sales-to-list price ratio, and the share of listings with at least one price cut; each "power indicator" now are in buyers' favor. The housing listing and data site also found that inventory is increasing in some of the most expensive markets on the coasts and in the West, as buyers aren't as quick to put in offers.

Because there are no clear rules or authority for officially calling a buyers’ or sellers’ market, both buyers and sellers should pay close attention to market cues. Even if a broader metro area doesn’t appear to be shifting in anyone’s favor, changes can be very different from neighborhood-to-neighborhood. Having an idea of these trends can greatly help inform the degree to which buyers and sellers have leverage in a given deal.

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