A latest report from Trulia indicated that five cities in California has the fastest moving housing markets in America.
The Trulia report considered several factors in order to come up with the list. One of these factors included looking at how long residential properties have stayed on the market through the site's house listings over a two month period. The site's data analysts then compared how many homes were still on sale, from listings beginning June 17 up until August 17.
Based on the report, San Francisco took the number one spot, followed by Oakland and San Jose. The remaining homes left for sale after the two month period in San Francisco was at 26 percent. Oakland and San Jose had 31 percent and 34 percent, respectively. Other California cities that made it to Trulia's top 10 fast moving housing markets list are San Diego with 47 percent and Orange County with 49 percent.
According to Ralph McLaughlin, a housing economist at Trulia and the report's author, California "continues to reign as the state with the fastest moving markets." McLaughlin also mentioned that the number of homes which remained for sale among the top three San Francisco Bay Area metros after the two month period was less than 34 percent. He added, "But the news isn't all bad for California home buyers. The percentage of homes still on the market after two months has increased slightly over the past year."
However, the report also indicated that on a national level, 63 percent of the homes listed on June 17, still remained on the market until August 17. This reportedly is slightly higher from same period last year which was at 61 percent.
The reason as to why home buyers are not snapping up residential properties may be due to price fatigue, states CNBC. Given the rising home prices and the bidding wars, buyers are reportedly are "shying away" from such conditions, according to homebuilders and real estate agents. Jill Schafer, an agent at Kentwood Real Estate in Denver, said, "We definitely saw a bit of a cool toward the end of July. People started to get nervous about rising prices."
Another reason for the slow uptake was also due to real estate agents being overwhelmed by the demand. Schafer explained, "I think that agents were so busy and swamped that we couldn't keep it going. Everyone I talked to said, 'I'm holding people back.'"
