Seattle Culture

Seattle Ranks 4th in Nation’s Seller’s Markets

After San Francisco, San Jose and Denver, Seattle is the fourth hottest home market in the nation. Zillow breaks it down here

By Melissa Allison, Zillow Contributor March 1, 2017

zillow-market-and-homes

[addtoany]

This article originally appeared on Zillow.com.

Owning a home in San Francisco comes with 99 problems, but selling ain’t one.

Among the problems: San Francisco’s median home values are among the highest in the country, topping $800,000, according to Zillow Research. The city is cold and foggy in the summer, as Mark Twain noted. You also have to keep an ear to the ground for earthquakes.

But when it comes time to sell, you can’t beat San Francisco. Its homes are listed on Zillow for just 51 days on average, and only 5.4 percent of listings take price cuts — making it the best market for sellers in 2016.

The top markets for buying have the inverse situation: more days listed and greater price cuts.

By those measures, the best market for buying is Baltimore, where listings spend an average of 104 days on Zillow, and 12.7 percent of listings take a price cut.

Many of the metros on the top markets for sellers list have seen huge influxes of newcomers, sending home prices into the stratosphere. Portland had the fastest rising home values in 2016 — up 13.8 percent.

Six of the 10 top buyers’ markets have home values that are appreciating more slowly than the national average — which in 2016 was 6.8 percent. For example, Baltimore home values rose less than 4 percent during 2016.

Home inventories also play a role. Markets with more homes going on the market — for example, Miami, where 14.6 percent more listings hit the market in December 2016 than a year earlier — often lean toward buyers. Miami is the second-best buyers’ market, based on listing days and percentage of listings with price cuts.

However, Boston — No. 10 on the top markets for selling list — saw a 21.6 percent drop in listing inventory in December 2016 from the prior year.

If you’re trying to buy in a hot market, take heart: Most experts in a recent Zillow survey said they expect the overall housing market to switch from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market in 2018 or 2019 as the market begins to slow.

Follow Us

Montlake Maximalists

Montlake Maximalists

Couple strips 1915 Dutch colonial home

Subscribers to the minimalist movement that has dominated American interior design over the past decade-plus may be roughly cleaved into two demographic groups...

Picture Perfect, Inside and Out

Picture Perfect, Inside and Out

The Friedman home serves as a rotating art gallery

"Canoe Trails Residence” is a home art gallery designed with velvet gloves and without velvet ropes. For decades, Ken and Jane Friedman have been serious curators and creators of art. Jane formerly co-owned Friedman Oens Gallery on Bainbridge Island, acquiring notable pieces from around the Northwest and world. Their collection includes...

PCF Wins Prestigious Remodeler's Award

PCF Wins Prestigious Remodeler’s Award

PCF Construction Group nabs awards for excellence and integrity

[addtoany]People Come First (PCF) Construction Group has been building dream outdoor living spaces for homeowners across the Pacific Northwest for more than 15 years. The Kent-based builder was named National Remodeler of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in 2023, and a National Finalist in 2024. “Receiving the Remodeler of the…

Small-Scale Sensitivity

Small-Scale Sensitivity

Whole-house renovation respects the aesthetics of its Capitol Hill neighborhood

Miriam Larson founded Story Architecture in the belief that, if she dug deep enough, each house and the family that lives in it would have a story to tell. In time, she would also conclude that some books are perfectly happy to be judged by their covers.