- Demand is strong for homes in New York City suburbs.
- Seller’s markets are also showing up in Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
- Utah’s market is seen as good for buyers.
Most of the nation’s housing market currently favors buyers, but not in the New York City suburbs.
Three of the nation’s top seller’s markets are just outside the Big Apple, in Long Island, New York, as well as northern and central New Jersey, according to a newly released analysis by the online real estate brokerage Redfin.
The company defines a seller’s market as one with more than 10% fewer sellers than buyers, a situation that can force house hunters to compete for what’s available, often leading to quick sales and even bidding wars.
While that was the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic home-buying frenzy, high housing prices and mortgage rates have since combined with economic uncertainty to slow sales and give buyers across the country, including in Utah, the upper hand.
Last month, Utah Association of Realtors President-elect Aaron Drussel declared “this is a great time” for buyers in the Beehive State because the sluggish selling season has made sellers more motivated to make deals.
But that’s not the case in Long Island’s Nassau County and Suffolk County, which tops the list of seller’s markets compiled with July data by Redfin with 36.2% fewer sellers than buyers, followed by New Jersey’s northern counties, with 20.7%.
Another New York City suburban area, New Jersey’s central counties, were No. 5 on the list. A Redfin post said those “suburbs stand out in large part because the demand to live close to the Big Apple is strong.”
Long Island real estate agent Sandra Glaser said in a post she’d received multiple offers on one of her listings, a “neglected” three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that needed work, even before it officially hit the market.
“At the open house, we had dozens of people show up to see the house,” Glaser said. “I’m sure we will be able to sell it quickly.”
Other top U.S. seller’s markets cited by Redfin are counties in the Providence, Rhode Island, area with 16.7% fewer sellers than buyers; the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area, with 15.1%; and counties around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with 12.8%.
But 39 of the 49 most-populated metropolitan areas in the U.S. that were analyzed are considered buyer’s markets. Redfin has estimated that in July, there were 51.3% more sellers than buyers nationwide, hitting a record low of about 967,000.