A new ranking from Zillow finds Connecticut’s biggest housing market is also one of the worst in the nation for first-time homebuyers.
The combined housing markets of Hartford and Middlesex counties scored fourth from last in the Zillow economists’ ranking of the nation’s 50 biggest metropolitain areas, just behind Boston and ahead of San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Buffalo, New York.
The best market for new homebuyers was New Orleans, followed by Miami and Tampa. Florida and Texas markets dominated the list of best markets thanks to strong housing construction in those regions that restored inventory depleted during the pandemic homebuying boom.
“Prospective buyers in most markets today are feeling less intense competition than in recent spring shopping seasons. Pressure is easing up as mortgage rates raise costs and sellers return,” Skylar Olsen, Zillow chief economist, said in a statement. “However, the pool of homes for sale remains remarkably low. This means the nation remains a seller’s market despite high mortgage rates — homes are selling faster, with more buyer interest over any one listing, than pre-pandemic.”
Zillow assembled its rankings of how friendly a metro was to buyers or sellers based the share of homes that sell quickly, the share of homes with a price cut and buyer engagement with active Zillow listings in a market.
In New Orleans, Zillow estimated that home values fell 7 percent year-over-year, more than 1 in 4 home listings had seen a price cut while inventory was up 22.4 percent and numbers of new home listings were up 8.9 percent. In Miami, home values were up 7.3 percent, slightly less than one-quarter of all listings had seen a price cut and inventory was up 41.3 percent, plus a 27.2 percent boost in new listings.
Compared to that, Zillow calculated, Hartford-area home values were up 12.3 percent, only 11.9 percent of listings had a price cut, total inventory was only up 6 percent and numbers of new listings had only increased by 7.3 percent.
While it means first-time buyers will have a tough time affording homes in the area, Greater Hartford sellers are poised to do very well, Zillow said.