The residential real estate markets that were so good for so many sellers are not good any longer. The market for buyers, who struggled with high prices, has improved but is still plagued by expensive mortgage rates. However, sellers now have regained improved circumstances, but only in a few cities, where homes are on the market for a relatively few days. The “days on the market” means these cities must have a relatively good inventory of buyers because this measure is also a sign buyers have returned to these in modest number of metros.

Realtor.com used two pieces of data to pick its “Cities Where The Housing Markets Are Heating Up.” These are demand determined by the number of views per listing a house has on Realtor.com and how many days listings remain for sale before getting snapped up. The second measure comes from Realtor.com listings as well.

Realtor.com experts wrote: “While high mortgage rates might have plunged most of America’s housing market into a deep slump, the saying “all real estate is local” still applies—and certain cities are defying the odds and bucking this nationwide decline big-time.” Mortgage rates have gone from about 3% to 6% in the last 18 months, which means that in some cases, mortgage payments for a given home have doubled.

Several of the cities on the top of the list are older industrial ones that have lost population for decades. First among these is Rochester, NY, at the top of the list. The ratio of visits per property compared to the national number was 2,7 per month in March. Days on the market were 27. The median listing amount was $257,000, well below the national average. 

Two other cities near the top were also from the older industrial list. These include Hartford, with a ratio of 3.8, and 36 days on the list. The median price in Hartford was $403,000. Nearby New Haven with a ratio of 2.5 and median days on the market of 33. The median home price in New Haven was $399,000.

Inexplicably, many of the cities on the list were in the Northeast. The list did not contain any markets in the South, where the housing market has been on fire. One theory about why this is true is that home prices have risen so far in places like Miami, Austin, and Phoenix that they are unaffordable for many residents. 

Also see: These are the American cities spending billions to build more homes.

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