Residential real estate markets are off to a hot start in 2016 and San Francisco takes the top spot among the hottest as California finds 12 of its cities in the top 20. The rising demand for housing markets are also expected to progress into spring when home buying season usually starts.
According to Housing wire.com, there are 20 residential markets that displayed an increasing demand in January 2016. San Francisco ranks No. 1 on the list followed by San Jose and Dallas. The next 17 markets include 10 from the state of California, namely, Vallejo, San Diego, Sacramento, Stockton, Los Angeles, Santa Rosa, Oxnard, Yuba City, Modesto and Santa Cruz. The rest of the most desirable housing locations are Fort Wayne in Indiana, Tampa in Florida, Midland in Texas, Detroit in Michigan, Palm Bay in Florida, Denver in Colorado, and Nashville, Tennessee.
Realtor.com chief economist, Jonathan Smoke, said that their initial readings in January "affirm the positive growth we expect to see in the residential real estate market in 2016." He also added, "Our traffic, searches and listing views exhibited the January 'pop' we saw last year, which made for a strong spring. In addition, a large number of prospective buyers have been telling us since the second half of 2015 that they plan to purchase in the spring and summer of 2016."
Meanwhile in a report by Realtor.com, the median age of inventory has now reached 100 days, which is still 4 percent faster when compared with that of January of last year. This also means that homes take as much as 6 percent longer to sell in January than in December.
It is also noted that the estimated median listing price for January is around $227,000, remaining virtually flat over December, but still up 8 percent year over year.
Smoke's team was able to classify the top 20 using the age of inventory of the nation's largest markets and analyzing listing views that are growing despite the effects of winter which usually dampens buyer interest.