America's 10 Easiest Housing Markets for Homebuyers—and the 10 Hardest

by Meghan Malas

America’s 10 Easiest Housing Markets for Homebuyers—and 10 Hardest — Realtor.com

Buying a home today is just plain hard: Home shoppers who dare venture out there face high asking prices, steep mortgage rates, intense competition from investors, and other challenges that are not for the faint of heart.

That said, not all real estate markets are equally grueling across the board; the level of difficulty varies greatly from place to place. Certain areas could even be considered downright easy, at least relatively speaking.

So where, you might be wondering, are these supposedly pain-free housing markets? Or, are you curious whether you’re heading out into one of America’s more brutal markets where only the strongest prevail?

To find out, we crunched the numbers to pinpoint the places that are the easiest—and hardest—for homebuyers right now.

By “easiest,” we mean buyers have more power; by “hardest,” buyers lack that leverage. To run our analysis, we looked at the following metrics on Realtor.com® for the 200 largest metro areas in the U.S.:

Year-over-year shift in median list price
Year-over-year shift in the share of listings that saw price reductions
Year-over-year shift in active listing count
Median days on the market
Change in active listing levels between July 2019 and July 2024

The easiest real estate markets for home shoppers

In many of these markets, buyers are seeing growth in the number of homes for sale along with decelerating or negative price growth. Homebuyers in these areas have more options and are better positioned to negotiate the price and terms of the transaction.

“Buyers in the easiest markets tend to be relatively slow-moving as supply outpaces demand,” says Realtor.com economist Hannah Jones. “Many of these markets saw prices and competition climb significantly during the early days of the [COVID-19] pandemic, but the combination of high prices and climbing mortgage rates tempered demand, leading to building inventory.”

Why Florida has become an easy market for homebuyers

Florida markets dominate this list because they’ve seen some of the highest growth in active listings, both year over year and since before the pandemic. Many cities, such as Punta Gorda, are also seeing price corrections after overheating during the pandemic housing boom.

While lots of new construction has hit metropolitan areas like Miami in the past couple of years, the recent rise in active listing levels is more due to constrained demand across these metros, indicated by homes remaining on the market for longer.

Specifically, Florida’s condo market has softened substantially. Following the Surfside condo collapse in 2021, new safety standards were passed. Those are now ushering in expensive special assessments for many owners, which have further contributed to the price drops and listing level increases in coastal Florida markets.

As for the one Texas market on the list?

“There were 80% more homes for sale in Lubbock than a year prior in July, leading to homes spending more than twice as long on the market,” Jones explains. “In response, eager sellers have brought prices down, suggesting that buyers are in a good position to negotiate.”

According to our analysis, these are the 10 easiest housing markets for homebuyers, as well as their median list prices and days on the market:

Lubbock, TX

Median home list price: $253,500
Median days on the market: 55

Punta Gorda, FL

Median home list price: $425,000
Median days on the market: 90

Lakeland, FL

Median home list price: $349,900
Median days on the market: 51

Crestview, FL

Median home list price: $330,000
Median days on the market: 55

Tampa, FL

Median home list price: $460K
Median days on the market: 54

North Port, FL

Median home list price: $379,900
Median days on the market: 83

Miami, FL

Median home list price: $650,000
Median days on the market: 66

Port St. Lucie, FL

Median home list price: $445,000
Median days on the market: 60

Gainesville, FL

Median home list price: $324,900
Median days on the market: 56

Orlando, FL

Median home list price: $399,000
Median days on the market: 54

The hardest real estate markets for home shoppers

Our analysis found that the hardest markets for homebuyers are located across the Northeast and the Midwest. These metros have been resilient since the pandemic housing boom, as asking prices continue to tick up even after the U.S. passed through its fastest-ever deterioration in housing affordability.

"It remains challenging to afford a home in much of the country, which has funneled buyer activity into relatively low-priced areas," Jones says. "As a result, these markets have seen climbing demand and competition, which has driven prices higher."

These metros also have a limited selection available for homebuyers, as active housing stock remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels. These trends are immediately evident in the No. 1 hardest market: Erie, PA.

"While active listings climbed annually in much of the country in July, Erie, PA, saw listing counts fall 5.6%," Jones adds. "Buyers flocked to this affordable market, resulting in falling inventory, a snappy market pace, and significant price growth."

Unlike many housing markets in the Southwest and Southeast, there's a lack of homebuilding in the Northeast and Midwest, which contributes to its supply and demand problem.

Plus, as new construction becomes available in the Southwest and Southeast markets, and builders use buy-downs to sell homes in the current strained affordability environment, it has created an additional cooling effect in the region's resale market. Many Northeast and Midwest markets, on the other hand, are not experiencing this additional cooling effect, and so sellers there have held their edge.

Here's a look at the hardest housing markets for homebuyers, along with their median list prices and days on the market: