2023 was a pretty lousy year historically for home sales and based on the most recent statistics covering this year, 2024 is not looking to be much better.
According to Creditnews Research, the housing market is cooling across the board as buyers have been crushed by chronically low housing stock, elevated mortgage rates, and still-rising home prices which have all contributed to the “lock-in effect.”
Sadly, with mortgage rates creeping higher above the 7% recently, according to Freddie Mac, the odds of the market swinging in the favor of buyers in the near term remain bleak.
Knowing this, Creditnews ranked the fastest-selling housing markets in the country among the top 100 most populated metropolitan areas according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the second edition of the report from Creditnews, whose initial report during the fourth quarter of 2023 compared pre- and post-pandemic market trends.
Key findings
- The top 10 fastest-selling metros of Q1 2024 are all located on the East Coast and Midwest—with Hartford, Connecticut; Syracuse, New York; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Rochester, New York; and Grand Rapids, Michigan coming out on top;
- The top 10 slowest-selling metros are mainly located in Southern states—with homes in Austin, Texas; McAllen, Texas; Poughkeepsie, New York; San Antonio, Texas; and New Orleans, Louisiana staying on the market the longest;
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the biggest Q1 “loser,” as the average home stayed on the market 83% longer than a quarter before. In terms of actual days an average home stays on the market, Des Moines, Iowa, saw the most significant increase at 14 days;
- There were no “winners” in the first quarter of 2024 because all metro areas were selling at the same or slower pace compared to a quarter before;
- The median days an average home stayed on the market increased in 95 metros and stayed the same in the remaining five (Hartford, Connecticut; Syracuse, New York; Rochester, New York; Seattle, Washington; and San Jose, California).
- Nine of the top 10 fastest-selling housing markets from Q4 2023 made it back on the list in the first quarter of 2024.
- For the second straight quarter, the Texas metros of Austin and McAllen are the first and second-slowest-selling metros in the country, respectively.
- In Austin, it takes 60 days for a home listing to reach sale-pending status—longer than any other metro in the country and 9% higher than a previous quarter. Austin’s housing inventory also dropped 16% quarter-over-quarter.
- Homes in McAllen remained listed for a near average of 53 days, which is 13% higher compared to a previous quarter.
- Meanwhile, Poughkeepsie, New York, is a close third with a median days-to-pending of 51 days, which is 31% higher compared to a quarter before.
- Metros ranking between 4th and 7th have an average days to pending from 40 to 50: San Antonio, Texas (49 days), New Orleans, Louisiana (48 days), Fort Myers, Florida (42 days), and Jacksonville, Florida (41 days). In each of these metros, listings have stayed much longer compared to a quarter before.
- At the bottom of the worst-selling list are the Florida metros of Daytona Beach and Sarasota—with average days to pending of 39 and 38 days, respectively.
- Among the top 10 slowest-selling metros, Sarasota homes saw the most considerable increase in median days on the market, at 44%. Interestingly, home inventory in this metro also soared by 30% last quarter.
The correlation between home sales and housing inventories remains apparent quarter-over-quarter. Between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024, six of the top 10 slowest-selling metros were in areas that had the highest number of listings per 1,000 citizens.
Cape Coral, Florida, ranked first in housing inventory (18.5 listings per 1,000 citizens) and was also the seventh-slowest-selling housing market in the country.
Sarasota, Florida, ranked second in housing inventory (9 listings per 1,000 citizens) while coming in tenth as the slowest-selling housing market.
Daytona Beach, Florida; Miami, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Jacksonville, Florida, were the other four metros that shared top rankings in the highest housing inventories and slowest-selling housing markets.
Click here to see Creditnews’s report and rankings.
