San Francisco was the hottest U.S. real estate market in November, based on housing supply and demand. Among the 20 hottest markets, 12 were in California, one of the states most badly damaged by the housing bubble collapse.
“Sales and demand always slow down in the fall as a result of school, weather, and the holidays,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist of realtor.com.
“We are seeing inventory decline at a normal pace, taking into account that it peaked later in the year this year,” he noted. “But we’re also seeing prices remain firm and age of inventory remain lower than you would typically see, which reflects more demand than normal.”
Listing inventory for November looks like it will end down 2% compared with October. Homes are also taking a longer time to sell, which is typical as winter rolls through most markets, but at a pace that’s still faster than this time last year. The median age of inventory is now 84 days, which is 3% slower than October 2015 but 9% faster than November 2014.
In California, the markets include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oxnard, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Yuba City, Modesto, Stockton, Vallejo and Santa Cruz. Some of these markets, particularly in central California, had among the highest unemployment in the country, as the national economy fell apart and then recovered. They are also near the state’s worst drought areas.
Among the reasons for California’s outsized presence:
“We are starting to see more movement [in the ranking] in the hottest markets as the season brings material declines in demand in many markets,” Smoke said. “However, California remains hot as pent-up demand continues to drive activity in very supply-constrained markets.”
The other markets on the top 20 list are Denver, Dallas, Nashville, Detroit and Boston, as well as Boulder, Colo.; Palm Bay, Fla.; and Columbus, Ohio.
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Realtor.com’s methodology:
Our data team ranked the country’s 300 largest markets in terms of housing supply (measured by days on market) and demand (measured by listing views on our site) to come up with the top 20 hottest markets in the U.S. for this month.
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