Today's Home Sales Pace Is Lightning-Fast

The average time between a house being listed for sale and a buyer's offer being accepted was only 26 days in April, a post-recession low, according to the latest data from Trulia.

Homes that were sold in April were listed an average of 64 days, another post-recession low, Trulia's data found. The five cities with the fastest sales paces are all in the West: Seattle, San Jose, Calif. San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., and Denver. The time from listing to sale in these cities range from only 36 to 41 days. On the other end of the spectrum and country, in the East, the pace of listing to sale is slowest, between 99 to 144 days, in Syracuse, N.Y., Long Island, N.Y., New York City, Miami, and Pittsburgh, USA Today reports.

“Things are moving quickly,” Trulia housing economist Felipe Chacon says. “You need to have your ducks in a row.” A strong job market that’s fueling demand and near-record low supplies of homes for sale is forcing house hunters to make offers quickly — sometimes sight unseen. There was a four-month supply of homes on the market in April compared to a normal six-month inventory, according to the National Association of Realtors.

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