Easiest vs. toughest homebuying markets
Want to buy a home but aren’t looking for an uphill battle? You should probably head to Florida. According to new data, the Sunshine State is home to three of the easiest homebuying markets in the country.
Homebuying is easy in Florida
A new analysis from Realtor.com looks at the easiest and toughest markets to buy a home in. The clear winner? That’d be Florida, which claimed three of the easiest homebuying markets in the nation.
Fort Myers took the top spot, with 38 for-sale listings for every 1,000 households. Miami-Fort Lauderdale was close behind at nearly 32 listings, while Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond came in just below that at 30.9 listings per 1,000 households. North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton came in at No. 5 with 25.8 listings, and Jacksonville at No. 6 with 21.8.
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Other, non-Florida markets that are easy to find and buy a home in include Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.; Charleston-North Charleston, S.C.; Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.; Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev.; and New York-Newark-Jersey City, N.Y/N.J.
Here’s how Nicolas Bedo, Realtor.com economic data analyst, sums the findings up, “The South dominates the list of easy places to find a home. Florida metros claimed four of the top five spots and seven of the top 20 easiest markets to find a home. Connecticut has three markets represented, while South Carolina and Texas each have two.”
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No more California dreamin’
California is apparently the hardest place to buy a home. The state claimed six of the top 20 toughest homebuying markets on Realtor.com’s list.
At the top was San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, which has a mere four listings per 1,000 households. Other Golden State markets on the list included San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, San Diego-Carlsbad, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim; and Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade.
Ohio claimed three spots on the list (Columbus, Cincinnati, and Akron), while New York took two (Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls and Rochester).
As Bedo explains, “The top 20 toughest housing markets includes a diverse geographic mix of larger established metros and up-and-comers where housing is still relatively affordable. They are concentrated in three regions of the country — eight metros from the West, six from the Midwest and six from the Northeast. None of the markets are located in the South, which dominates the list of top 20 easiest markets to find a home.”
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