- theMReport.com - https://themreport.com -

The Housing Market Gets Hotter in the West

A study of 16,000 U.S. zip codes by Realtor.com [1] found that, overwhelmingly, the ZIP codes seeing the fastest movement of homes are in the West.

Nationally, the report [2] stated, houses are generally on the market for an average of 78 days. But in the 20 markets where homes sold fastest in Q1, they sold after an average 21 days on the market; in the top three ZIP codes, in fact, barely past three weeks.

While 12 different states made up the top 20 ZIP codes in the country, California had the most, with seven areas overall. Three—San Ramon, San Diego, and San Jose—were in the top 10. Colorado, which placed the overall hottest zip code in Colorado Springs' 80922, had two markets in the top 10. The other was Littleton.

Fort Worth, Texas, tied with San Ramon for second place on the list. Homes there sold in an average 16 days during the quarter. Colorado Springs saw homes closing in an average 15 days.

But those were not the fastest moving markets of the quarter. Homes in San Ramon moved in 14 days and in Littleton, just 11. These latter ZIP codes were not ranked first and second because of prices and demand. Littleton's homes sold for a median price of $432,000 in Q1, almost $150,000 higher than those in Colorado Springs. But demand was higher, the report stated, in Colorado Springs.

“Colorado ZIPs continue their hot streak highlighting the meteoric rise of Denver and its neighboring metros over the past decade,” the report stated. That reflects “a pattern that other markets hope to replicate. In fact, we speculated as to whether Salt Lake City, Utah is the ‘New Denver’ earlier this year and now we see Salt Lake City breaking into the top 20 ZIPs.”

Salt Lake, in fact, finished 20th on the list. Homes there moved in an average 21 days during the quarter.

The only ZIP codes outside the West and Midwest to break the top 20 were Melrose, Massachusetts; Rochester, New York; and Montclair, New Jersey.  Homes in those markets moved, on average, between 19 and 26 days on the market, according to the report.

The largest surprise, the report stated, was Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, which finished tenth overall. Homes moved an average 25 days after being put on the market in the first quarter.  

“The Kansas City metropolitan area itself has been hot this spring,” the report stated. “Overland Park is leading the pack in a new set of boiling hot neighborhoods in the Midwest.”

The median price for a home in the top 20 markets was $377,000, the report stated. That's about one-and-a-half times the national median during Q1.