{"id":3455,"date":"2023-09-29T02:09:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T02:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/29\/americas-inhospitable-housing-market-has-driven-buyers-to-one-city-thatll-surprise-you\/"},"modified":"2023-09-29T02:09:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T02:09:44","slug":"americas-inhospitable-housing-market-has-driven-buyers-to-one-city-thatll-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/29\/americas-inhospitable-housing-market-has-driven-buyers-to-one-city-thatll-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s \u2018Inhospitable\u2019 Housing Market Has Driven Buyers to One City That\u2019ll Surprise You"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fall\u2019s lower temperatures come with slower home sales\u2014particularly as high interest rates<\/a> cast a chill in the air.<\/p>\n

But according to a new Realtor.com\u00ae<\/a> report on America\u2019s Hottest Housing Markets<\/a> of August 2023, competition for housing\u2014measured by views per listing and days on the market<\/a>\u2014is still shockingly heated in certain places.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite waning demand, many markets, especially affordable markets, saw demand outstrip supply, leading to surprisingly competitive conditions,\u201d says Hannah Jones<\/strong>, economics data analyst at Realtor.com, in her analysis. \u201cThe country\u2019s hottest markets suffered this fate.\u201d<\/p>\n

And many of these preeminently popular markets might surprise you, particularly No. 1: Rochester, NY<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rochester, NY<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

This unassuming city next to the Great Lake of Ontario might not be on most peoples\u2019 radar, but cash-strapped homebuyers have taken note of its modest median list price, which came in at $250,000 in August\u2014far below the national median of $435,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means that buyers financing 80% of a home purchase at today\u2019s mortgage rate of 7.19% would be looking at a monthly housing payment of roughly $1,400 in Rochester versus roughly $2,400 for the median-priced U.S. home,\u201d says Jones.<\/p>\n

In other words, Rochester residents are spending $1,000 less per month<\/em> for a house compared with the average American.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough it has only topped the list a handful of times, Rochester has ranked in the top five hottest markets for the last 30 months,\u201d Jones says. \u201cRochester offers potential buyers affordability and the opportunity to become homeowners in a largely inhospitable market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Why affordability rules America\u2019s hottest markets<\/h2>\n

Jones\u2019 sentiment was echoed by Doug Forken<\/strong><\/a>, a Rochester-area real estate agent at Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, who\u2019s seen an influx of out-of-town buyers to his area since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and as investors took advantage of record-low interest rates from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cHome prices [here] are still more affordable than many parts of the country,\u201d Forken says. \u201cWith more people working from home, buyers are moving to locations with a lower cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, he says, \u201cSupply is not able to keep pace with demand. Supply is so low that every type of buyer imaginable is looking to purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed-rate loan have more than doubled from below 3% to over 7% today, homebuyers across the country have shifted their priorities toward more budget-friendly locales. As a result, 14 of August\u2019s hottest markets were priced below the national median of $435,000.<\/p>\n

Yet, as demand for these metros has risen, so have their prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cHome prices continue to rise in the Rochester area,\u201d Forken warns. \u201cSome buyers have grown more selective recently as prices and mortgage interest rates continue to rise, but updated homes in desirable locations continue to drive prices to new heights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationwide, list prices have inched up only 0.7% in August compared with last year. Yet by comparison, prices in the 20 hottest markets rose between 2.1% and 19.3%, marking the 13th month in a row of outstripping overall price growth.<\/p>\n

Yet even though Rochester prices have shot up 11.1% since last year, that number has remained below the national median since 2016, when Realtor.com started collecting this data. In other words, this city isn\u2019t about to become un<\/em>affordable anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Why affordability might be relative<\/h2>\n

Affordability can also be relative, with the second- and third-hottest markets of Portland, ME,<\/a> and Manchester, NH,<\/a> sporting median list prices above $550,000.<\/p>\n

In fact, seven of August\u2019s 20 hottest markets lie within commuting distance to Boston and offer cheaper alternatives to living in Beantown, where home prices hover at $844,000.<\/p>\n

While 10 of August\u2019s hottest markets lie in the Northeast, eight locales are in the Midwest, and two Southern cities entered the rankings this month, including Johnson City<\/a> (No. 12) and Kingsport-Bristol<\/a> (No. 17) in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Still, even with some Nashville alternatives jumping into the top 20, the Northeast and Midwest have dominated these rankings since early 2022. And this has kept inventory in these areas tight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the annual decline in homes for sale in these regions has been middle of the pack, the number of homes for sale<\/a> in the Northeast and Midwest was less than half its pre-pandemic norm in August,\u201d says Jones.<\/p>\n

While limited inventory continues to be an issue across the nation\u2014with for-sale inventory tumbling 7.9% year over year in August\u2014three-quarters of the month\u2019s hottest markets saw more severe inventory declines than the rest of the country. As a result, homes in most of the hot list locations don\u2019t linger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese markets are seeing homes for sale move up to 31 days more quickly than the typical property in the United States,\u201d says Jones.<\/p>\n

So while the market isn\u2019t flying at a pandemic-frenzy pace, homebuyers might still feel some pressure to hurry if they see a property that checks all of their boxes.<\/p>\n

As Rochester-based agent Forken puts it, \u201cThe annual slowdown is expected at the onset of the holidays, but the market will likely be on the rise again in late February.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post America\u2019s \u2018Inhospitable\u2019 Housing Market Has Driven Buyers to One City That\u2019ll Surprise You<\/a> appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images Fall\u2019s lower temperatures come with slower home sales\u2014particularly as high interest rates cast a chill in the air. But according to a new Realtor.com\u00ae report on America\u2019s Hottest Housing Markets of August 2023, competition for housing\u2014measured by views per listing and days on the market\u2014is still shockingly heated in certain places. \u201cDespite waning…Read More→<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}