This American City Has Run Out Of Homes For Sale

Housing

Published: April 29, 2024 9:50 am

The number of active housing listings in March 2024 was 23.5% higher compared to March last year, with listings growing for a fifth straight month, according to Realtor.com. With inventory growing, the median price of homes for sale remained nearly the same, increasing by only 0.2% compared to March 2023. However, homes spent 50 days on the market — two days shorter than last year and 12 days shorter than the average March from 2017 to 2019. And in some markets, homes are selling even faster.

To find the housing markets where homes sell the fastest, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed real estate listing website Realtor.com’s monthly inventory metro data. We only considered cities with a population of 10,000 or more. Here we listed the 46 cities where homes stayed no more than 33 days on market. Ties were broken by listing price. All housing data also came from Realtor.com. From the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year estimates for 2022, we added population figures.

In the 50 largest metropolitan areas, homes spent 40 days on the market, or four days less than last March, according to Realtor.com’s March 2024 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report. In the South, with home inventory growing the most, the typical home spent the same amount of time on the market in March as last year, but in the other regions homes spent less time — Midwest (-6 days), Northeast (-6 days), and West (-5 days).

Indeed, looking at the over 800 cities with a population of at least 10,000, a similar pattern emerges. In the 46 cities with the fastest-selling homes, median days on the market grew in only two and declined in the rest. (Also see, Buying a House In These Markets Would Eat Up Most of Your Wages.)

The vast majority, 24 cities, are in the Midwest region, including Chicago. Nine are in Ohio, six in Wisconsin, and three in Indiana. The Northeast region is next with 10 cities on the list, including Boston and Manchester-Nashua, New Hampshire — the city where homes sell the fastest. And although homes in this metro sell for far shorter time than March last year, the median listing price remained the same.

The West is next with seven cities, including four in California. The largest Western metro on the list is San Francisco, followed by Seattle and Denver. Finally, the South region has five cities on the list.

Why Are We Covering This

Up And Down Arrows And House On Seesaw On Wooden Desk

Source: Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock.com

The housing market has been in turmoil in recent years. During the first two-three pandemic years, housing inventory generally dropped and home prices in many markets soared. That is, until inflation hit, and the Federal Reserve began hiking rates. The ensuing high mortgage rates inevitably had an impact on the U.S. housing market. Importantly, city housing markets are often also driven by local forces and may not necessarily follow the national pattern. Here we aim to see in which markets homes still sell for considerably shorter time than the national market.

46. Charleston, Illinois

Source: Tudoran Andrei / Shutterstock.com

Median days on market, March 2024: 33
Change in median days YoY: -28 days
Median listing price, March 2024: $128,000 (#808 highest of 822 metros)
Change in median list price YoY: -13.5%
Active listings, March 2024: 56 (12 fewer units compared to March 2023)
Population, 2022: 17,795

45. Dayton-Kettering, Ohio

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Median days on market, March 2024: 33
Change in median days YoY: -3 days
Median listing price, March 2024: $229,900 (#636 highest of 822 metros)
Change in median list price YoY: +1.6%
Active listings, March 2024: 775 (108 more units compared to March 2023)
Population, 2022: 812,506

44. Frankfort, Indiana

20170424 32 Frankfort, Indiana by David Wilson

20170424 32 Frankfort, Indiana (CC BY 2.0) by David Wilson

Median days on market, March 2024: 33
Change in median days YoY: -23 days
Median listing price, March 2024: $265,000 (#530 highest of 822 metros)
Change in median list price YoY: +29.6%
Active listings, March 2024: 26 (2 more units compared to March 2023)
Population, 2022: 15,976

43. Chambersburg-Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

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Median days on market, March 2024: 33
Change in median days YoY: -11 days
Median listing price, March 2024: $315,000 (#397 highest of 822 metros)
Change in median list price YoY: +1.1%
Active listings, March 2024: 179 (26 more units compared to March 2023)
Population, 2022: 156,084

42. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI

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Median days on market, March 2024: 33
Change in median days YoY: -7 days
Median listing price, March 2024: $374,900 (#269 highest of 822 metros)
Change in median list price YoY: +6.4%
Active listings, March 2024: 11,333 (942 fewer units compared to March 2023)
Population, 2022: 9,566,955