Spring’s fastest—and slowest—housing markets

Spring’s “busy” housing season is off to a slow crawl: In March, the average listing sat on Zillow for 56 days. Still, not every home is lingering: Those that did sell went under contract in just 19 days.

This 37-day lead between the front of the pack and the laggers is the widest recorded in March in six years. So, why are certain homes gathering dust while others vanish before you can book a tour? It’s because today’s homebuyers have gotten picky. Back in April 2022, when buyers waged bidding wars for just about anything, the gap between properties that sold and those that sat narrowed to a record low of just nine days. Today, though, “higher costs are putting buyers under pressure,” explains Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow. “So they’re more choosy than during the pandemic frenzy.”

Spring’s speediest market

Kansas City, MO, currently has bragging rights as the fastest housing market in the US, where homes typically get snapped up in five days. Several affordable Midwest metros (St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Columbus, OH), as well as a couple of ultra-competitive markets (Richmond, VA, and Hartford, CT), boast homes that sell in six days.

At the other end of the spectrum, Miami home sales take 53 days to cross the finish line. Jacksonville, FL, ranks second-to-last at 46 days. Texas rounds out the stragglers with San Antonio and Austin listings lingering 42 and 40 days, respectively.

Even in slower markets like Miami, however, some homes move quickly: Nearly 9% sell in under a week, and 19.4% close above list price. What sets these homes apart is their condition. Turnkey properties consistently outperform the roughly 34% of listings that require repairs. “Turnkey homes sell for 3.2% more than expected, while fixer-uppers sell for 14% less—the widest gap in the data’s history,” says Zillow Senior Economist Kara Ng. “The reward for getting a home into shape has never been higher.”

The lesson? Buyers who can strap on a toolbelt and bring a house up to snuff can work both sides of today’s divided market to their advantage.

“This disparity between fast and slow sales presents an opportunity for investors with the ability to turn a slow sale into a fast one,” says San Antonio, TX–based real estate investor Daniel Cabrera, who recently purchased a fixer-upper that had been sitting on the market for over 120 days. After pouring $28,000 into repairing the roof and foundation, he sold the property in 11 days for an 8% premium over its original price.

His advice? “Seek out markets with growing days on market and purchase properties with condition problems,” he says. “Investors who can scope repair costs and move quickly on stale inventory can capture the largest spread between purchase price and after-repair value that I’ve seen since 2020.”

Find out how long it takes to see a house in your market here.