This city is home to the ‘nation’s hottest housing market’ this season: report
Tacoma, Wash. is the spot for those looking to buy a home after it was dubbed the “nation’s hottest housing market this spring” in a recent report.
The declaration was made by Redfin, a real estate brokerage company. More than 50 percent of homes that were sold in the metro area went under contract in two weeks. A home for sale in the city found a buyer in about eight days, the “shortest median time on market nationwide,” the analysis stated.
Data showed that 49.7 percent of houses in the city sold above asking prices. The number is higher than any other metro minus San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose – the most expensive metros in the country. Prices for homes in the city were up 6 percent to $370,000 as inventory fell 12.5 percent.
“Ordinary homebuyers have gotten fed up with home prices in Seattle, largely because most people aren’t able to compete with highly paid tech workers and executives at companies like Amazon,” Ellen Campion, a Redfin agent in Tacoma, said in a statement. “A lot of buyers are turning to Tacoma. I’m seeing an increase in bidding wars compared to the end of last year and a rise in homes selling for above the asking price, particularly for homes that are ready to move into right away.”
Ashley Sprecher, a Redfin agent in Tacoma, said she believed the city was becoming a “vital city in its own right.”
Mostly due to high home prices, homebuyers are gravitating away from the center of Seattle. "The value of their dollar increases as they move farther south," Sprecher said.
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Data showed the median sale price in Tacoma at $370,000 versus Seattle's $595,000. The national median sale price for a home is $314,876, according to the analysis.
On Tuesday, S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller said the home price index climbed 2.7 percent from a year earlier, down from an annual gain of 3 percent in February. The 20-city price index has fallen sharply from a year ago when it increased by 6.7 percent.
Seattle's home prices rose 1.6 percent in March from a year ago, but down from a 13 percent gain in March 2018. Prices in San Francisco rose just 1.4 percent. The biggest increase was in Las Vegas, at 8.2 percent, followed by Phoenix, at 6.1 percent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.