If you are up tomorrow morning, tune into Fox 4’s Good Day Wednesday morning around 7 a.m. I will be there talking about our hot hot real estate market, and the latest trends report from the folks at Realtor.com. They just released an early look at the May housing market with Advance Read on May Trends, a glimpse into residential real estate inventory and demand trends over the first 3 weeks of the month.
For May 2015, the analysis of data indicates U.S. housing demand remains strong and continues to outpace supply even with some growth in inventory. Realtor.com gets all it’s data from the Realtors, not through a third party, because the organization is actually run by the National Association of Realtors. So this is good stuff.
Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com‘s chief economist, has ranked the nation’s 20 hottest real estate markets. The rankings are based on a real estate hotness index, which is composed of two indicators reflective of demand and supply: the number of views per listing on realtor.com and the median age of inventory in each market.
Texas makes a bold statement on the list with Dallas-Fort Worth at #4 and Austin at #16.
On GoodDay, I’ll be talking about that inventory and what it means.
Other key takeaways from this month’s report include:
- Nationally, the median list price of a home increased to $228,000, up 7% year over year and 1% over April. That’s a little higher than Dallas ($177,600) and a little lower than Collin County ($264,950). So yeah, we are affordable but… getting closer to national median prices,
- Median days on market, now at 66 days, continued a sharp decline, down 11% year over year and 10% month over month. Helping create more opportunities for buyers, the listings inventory is now growing faster, at 4% over April but still down over last year. Inventory in Dallas is at 2.3 months — normal is considered 6 months — and actually the same in Collin County.
- California dominated the “hottest” markets list with half of the country’s 20 hottest real estate markets. San Francisco and San Jose maintain the #2 and #3 spots from April rankings, respectively. California markets rank highly because of tight supply and economic-powered growth in demand. And they are starting to freak out in San Francisco that no one can afford to even rent a home unless they can dish out $3000 a month for an efficiency.
- Three states are represented twice: Texas with Dallas and Austin, and I think Houston would have made the cut had it not been for oil; Colorado with #1 Denver and #13 Boulder; and Michigan with #9 Ann Arbor and #10 Detroit. These markets are also a reflection of economic-powered gains, but the Texas and Colorado story is more of a continuing saga and shows the resilience and diversified nature of the states’ economies despite the declines in oil. Michigan’s performance is related to economic recovery and very strong affordability. Want a house bargain? Go to Motown!
- Everyone wants to move to Colorado and get high. Denver resoundingly maintained the top ranking as inventory there and shaved 6 days off the median age while listing views grew 7% over April. Like Dallas, Denver is experiencing substantial economic growth, and the tight supply of housing is resulting in the fastest moving inventory in the country.
“On the demand side we are seeing traffic and searches on realtor.com continue to set new highs,” said Jonathan Smoke. “Unique users for the month are once again on pace for 40% growth year over year, while visits and searches are expected to be up more than 50% and 35%, respectively.”
Course you know what I think: shopping on the internet for a home has stirred our interests in everything home! Including the real estate!
Realtor.com’s 20 Hottest Real Estate Markets
| Market | May Rank | April Rank* |
| Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 1 | 1 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | 2 | 2 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 3 | 3 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 4 | 4 |
| Vallejo-Fairfield, CA | 5 | 5 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 6 | 6 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA | 7 | 8 |
| Santa Rosa, CA | 8 | 7 |
| Ann Arbor, MI | 9 | 9 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 10 | 11 |
| San Diego-Carlsbad, CA | 11 | 10 |
| Sacramento–Roseville–Arden-Arcade, CA | 12 | 21 |
| Boulder, CO | 13 | 17 |
| Fargo, ND-MN | 14 | 12 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 15 | 15 |
| Austin-Round Rock, TX | 16 | 14 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | 17 | 13 |
| Manchester-Nashua, NH | 18 | 31 |
| Columbus, OH | 19 | 22 |
| Stockton-Lodi, CA | 20 | 38 |
* April rankings revised in order to reflect updated ranking which now includes 300 markets
** The markets making it to realtor.com’s list, receive up to three times the number of views per listing on realtor.com compared to the national average and simultaneously have seen inventory move 18-45 days more quickly than the rest of the U.S. These markets rank in the top 50 on both metrics, underscoring that they are truly the hottest markets for both buyers and sellers so far this spring.
