Realtor.com®, operated by Move, Inc., has unveiled its Turnaround Towns Report for the third quarter of 2013, revealing that the Detroit, Santa Barbara, Calif. and Reno, Nev. markets are currently leading the nation in recovery.
The proprietary algorithm used for the report evaluates acceleration in key housing indicators observed on realtor.com® over the quarter – inventory, median list price and days on market as well as weighted search and listing activity on realtor.com®. Data is drawn from real-time listing counts through direct relationships with more than 800 multiple listing services (MLSs) around the country, representing 98 percent of all for-sale properties in the United States.
Nationally for the third quarter of 2013, the median age of inventory dropped 17.7 percent over the same period in 2012, with typical homes selling in 84 days between July and September of this year. Median list prices rose 7.6 percent year-over-year to $199,128 in the third quarter. The number of homes available on the market dropped across the country by 3.3 percent year-over-year, with an average of 1.96 million homes on the market on any given day in the period.
Most noteworthy in the third quarter of 2013 is the acceleration in markets that have been less impacted by the highs and lows of the past several years, such as Ann Arbor, Mich., Dallas, Boston and Boulder, Colo. These markets have demonstrated more consistent, incremental improvement, and their appearance on the list may be a bellwether of stronger improvements in similar markets to come, as the national marketplace moves further into balance. All four placed within the top 25 accelerating markets in the previous quarter’s report.
“We’re noticing a clear split between markets that have experienced major highs and lows in recent years, and those that have proved more resilient,” said Errol Samuelson, president of realtor.com®. “With the recent moderation in some of the more volatile markets, the subtler acceleration activity becomes more visible.”
