Skip to content

Seattle Ranks 4th in Nation’s Seller’s Markets

After San Francisco, San Jose and Denver, Seattle is the fourth hottest home market in the nation. Zillow breaks it down here

By Melissa Allison, Zillow Contributor March 1, 2017

zillow-market-and-homes

This article originally appeared on Zillow.com.

Owning a home in San Francisco comes with 99 problems, but selling ain’t one.

Among the problems: San Francisco’s median home values are among the highest in the country, topping $800,000, according to Zillow Research. The city is cold and foggy in the summer, as Mark Twain noted. You also have to keep an ear to the ground for earthquakes.

But when it comes time to sell, you can’t beat San Francisco. Its homes are listed on Zillow for just 51 days on average, and only 5.4 percent of listings take price cuts — making it the best market for sellers in 2016.

The top markets for buying have the inverse situation: more days listed and greater price cuts.

By those measures, the best market for buying is Baltimore, where listings spend an average of 104 days on Zillow, and 12.7 percent of listings take a price cut.

Many of the metros on the top markets for sellers list have seen huge influxes of newcomers, sending home prices into the stratosphere. Portland had the fastest rising home values in 2016 — up 13.8 percent.

Six of the 10 top buyers’ markets have home values that are appreciating more slowly than the national average — which in 2016 was 6.8 percent. For example, Baltimore home values rose less than 4 percent during 2016.

Home inventories also play a role. Markets with more homes going on the market — for example, Miami, where 14.6 percent more listings hit the market in December 2016 than a year earlier — often lean toward buyers. Miami is the second-best buyers’ market, based on listing days and percentage of listings with price cuts.

However, Boston — No. 10 on the top markets for selling list — saw a 21.6 percent drop in listing inventory in December 2016 from the prior year.

If you’re trying to buy in a hot market, take heart: Most experts in a recent Zillow survey said they expect the overall housing market to switch from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market in 2018 or 2019 as the market begins to slow.

Follow Us

Blueprints for Building Community

Blueprints for Building Community

After tragedy struck a local restaurateur family, one of their daughters stepped in to complete the design for her brother’s unfinished home.

Although he was just 35 when a heart attack took his life, Khoa Pham’s imprint on Seattle’s international district was such that the city quickly designated April 21 as a memorial day in his honor. With his rescue pitbull, Pinky, by his side, Pham cut a colorful figure through Little Saigon and became well known…

Tuft Stuff

Tuft Stuff

Tuft Ruft turns fiber art into a social, hands-on experience in Pioneer Square.

It all started with a bout of pandemic boredom. Like many, when COVID-19 hit, recent graduate Carrie Xiao found herself stuck at home, with extra time on her hands. One day, while scrolling social media, she discovered tufting: a textile manufacturing technique that creates a garment or rug with a “pile,” or raised surface. After…

Collaborating Cultures

Collaborating Cultures

Looking to build a home to welcome family and friends, one Kirkland couple turns to a sister to design a modern house with influences from the wife’s Thai heritage.

For many years, when homeowners planned to build or remodel, architects and designers advised them to think first and foremost about resale value. From the number of bedrooms to the materials, appliances, and finishes in the kitchens and bathrooms, homes were often treated solely as an investment, with an eye to future sales. In recent…

Whale Of A Remodel

Whale Of A Remodel

The transformation of an Orcas Island home takes advantage of remarkable views

For many years, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders entertained his Orcas Island neighbors with breathtaking acrobatics in his vintage airplane. Anders and his wife, Valerie, had purchased a five-acre compound on the isolated western edge of the island for its mesmerizing view, a subject he knew something about. As a member of the first human…