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Tight Inventory Drives High Prices, Quick Sales in the Nation’s Hottest Markets

What’s a home buyer to do? Listing prices for residential real estate remain near historical highs in October, pushed up by a continuing shortage of homes for sale, according to a preliminary analysis of October data on realtor.com®.

In June, the median home list price for the country ascended to $275,000 for the first time, and it has remained there ever since. (Well, almost—it slipped to $274,000 in September. Chump change!)

The culprit: There are still far more would-be buyers than there are homes for sale.

“The usual fall drop-off in inventory is compounded this year by scarcer listings than we saw one year ago and more shoppers than we typically see in this October,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist for realtor.com.

Sure as pumpkins and skeletons are sprouting up along the sidewalks, the seasonal drop-off in housing inventory has begun: We’re expecting to see 2% fewer listings in October, when we close the books, than there were in September. That would also be 8% fewer than the previous October.

And those few-and-far-between homes are selling quickly—8% faster than one year ago, in fact. Properties are spending a median 73 days on the market.

“Potential buyers who waited until fall hoping to score a bargain will find slim pickings,” Hale noted. “One potential bright spot for market-fatigued buyers is that new listings are up slightly from one year ago.”

About 420,000 new listings are expected to have hit the market by the end of October.

Amid all this, some real estate markets remain way buzzier than others.

Realtor.com compiled its monthly list of the hottest metro markets in the country by looking at where homes are snapped up in days and buyers can’t stop clicking to find their dream home.

This month’s list has San Jose, CA, maintaining its top spot, while Vallejo, CA, which is adjacent to fire-ravaged Napa and Sonoma counties, moved up a spot to second place.

And while California continues to dominate the hot list with 10 metro markets (which include neighboring towns—i.e., the San Francisco market also sweeps in Oakland and Hayward), nine other states across the country also made a showing.

Among this month’s big movers is Boston, which vaulted up 14 spots to reach the top five for the first time since May. Midland, TX, jumped 11 spots, and Janesville, WI, rose 10 spots to break into the top 20 for the first time.

The hot list

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Source: Real Estate News and Advice – realtor.com » Real Estate News