10 Cities Where Homes Are Selling in 15 Days or Less
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- Half of Homes on the Market Are Selling Within 2 Weeks — Despite High Mortgage Rates
The housing market may finally be starting to cool, but homes are still selling faster than they did at this time last year.
Homes were on the market for a median of 31 days in May, according to data from Realtor.com. That’s four days faster compared to the same period in 2021, though it's significantly slower than the 21 days homes spent on the market at the beginning of the year.
In a blog post, Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said she expects the pace of home sales to continue to slow.
“The big trend that we’ve seen just about nationwide is that homes are not sitting for very long anywhere,” Hale said. “We have relatively few homes on the market for sale, and up until recently, buyer demand has been really intense. But there have been some signs that demand is cooling.”
Much of that cooling is due to the swift rise of mortgage rates. As it becomes more expensive to take out a mortgage, some buyers are being forced to sit on the sidelines as their purchasing power plummets. As a result, some sellers are beginning to lower their asking prices, and the whirlwind bidding wars that defined the past two years are beginning to fade away.
Unfortunately for eager buyers, prices on the whole are continuing to rise thanks to strong demand from those who can still afford to borrow at today’s rates (or pay in cash), as well as a persistent shortage of homes nationwide. There were 2.6 months' worth of available homes for sale in May, according to the National Association of Realtors, compared to 4.8 months of inventory in May of 2020. Experts consider a six-month supply of homes to be a sign of a healthy market.
“Inventory levels still need to rise substantially – almost doubling – to cool home price appreciation and provide more options for home buyers,” Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors, said in a recent news release.
Where are homes selling fastest?
Of course, housing markets vary widely from city to city when it comes to demand, prices, demographics and more. Here are the 10 cities where homes are selling the fastest, along with the median number of days homes spend on the market in May. Realtor.com limited its list to one metro area per state.
- Manchester, New Hampshire: 8.5 days
- Raleigh, North Carolina: 9 days
- Rochester, New York: 10 days
- Denver, Colorado: 10 days
- Burlington, Vermont: 11 days
- Columbus, Ohio: 14 days
- Nashville, Tennessee: 14.5 days
- Columbia, Missouri: 14.5 days
- Portland, Maine: 15 days
- Worcester, Massachusetts: 15 days
Here are the 10 cities where homes are selling the slowest:
- Houma, Louisiana: 58.5 days
- Utica, New York: 55 days
- Iowa City, Iowa: 51.5 days
- Charleston, West Virginia: 50 days
- Salisbury, Maryland: 49.5 days
- Las Cruces, New Mexico: 46 days
- Appleton, Wisconsin: 45.5 days
- Blacksburg, Virginia: 44 days
- Lexington, Kentucky: 44 days
- Gulfport, Mississippi: 44 days
More from Money:
Why Home Sellers Prefer Cash Offers — Even if They're Lower Than Competing Bids
4 Tips to Avoid Overpaying in Today's Changing Housing Market
'Buyers in a Tough Spot': Rising Mortgage Rates Mean Homebuyers Get Far Less for Their Money
