The California city of Vallejo, located about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, continued to hold the number one position in Realtor.com’s Hottest Housing Market list for July. But San Francisco took a surprise drop from the number two position on the list to fourth place, with Dallas and Denver rising to take the second and third slots, respectively.
California markets occupied 12 of the top 20 spots on this new list, with only Colorado (third-place Denver and sixteenth-place Colorado Springs) and Michigan (thirteenth-place Detroit and 20th-place Ann Arbor) as the other states with multiple placements.
In surveying the national housing scene, Realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke forecast a home buying season that would eradicate the notion of summer doldrums.
“The best spring in a decade has transitioned into the hottest summer in a decade,” said Smoke. “Pent-up demand left over from tight supply for two years against the backdrop of mortgage rates remaining near three-year lows have encouraged buyers to keep active at a time when sales usually begin to decline.”
Smoke predicted that properties will spend a median 68 days on market in July and 500,000 new listings will come online this month. The median home price for July will be $251,000 for the month, a record for the month and seven percent above the June 2015 level.
Freddie Mac’s latest Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) reached an 85 level, with 38 states plus the District of Columbia and 75 major metro areas registering MiMi values within range of their benchmark averages.
“Nationally, MiMi in May registered 85, a 7.3 percent year-over-year increase and the 49th consecutive month of year-over-year increases,” said Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer. “Many of the Western markets continue to see strong home sales. However, it's the Southern states where MiMi continues to register some of the strongest gains buoyed by an improving employment picture. For example, the majority of Southern states showed stronger employment growth than the national average and all of the eight markets in Florida that MiMi tracks are now back to their historic benchmark levels of housing activity.”
