Zillow: Philly Is Top Buyers’ Market In the Nation

How can this be when values are up and inventory down? Read on to see how Zillow arrived at its conclusion.

According to Zillow, homes here remain on the market longer than in other U.S. metros, and price cuts are more common.

According to Zillow, homes here remain on the market longer than in other U.S. metros, and price cuts are more common.

From where we sit, the Philadelphia-area real estate market is hot, especially in the city. House values are up, and inventory and days on market have fallen.

Yet according to the real estate search site Zillow, the greater Philadelphia real estate market is the Number One buyers’ market in the country right now.

How can this be?

We asked Zillow spokeswoman Lauren Braun for an explanation, and she gave us one.

“Zillow ranks buyers’ and sellers’ markets based on price cuts and days on market,” she said. “Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of price cuts, and listings spend the longest time on the market. And while inventory is down in Philadelphia and home values have risen, both are on a smaller scale than the nation as a whole.”

Nationally, inventory in January of this year was down 8.6 percent from year-ago levels; in Philadelphia, inventory fell 3.5 percent in that period. And while house values rose 1.4 percent over the course of a year in Philadelphia, they rose 4.2 percent nationally.

A Zillow news release announcing the current top buyers’ and sellers’ markets noted that sellers’ markets tended to be concentrated in the west, while buyers had more leverage in the East. Of the top five buyers’ markets nationally, only one, #2 Chicago, is not in the Northeast (rounding out the top five: Baltimore, Hartford, and New York/Northern New Jersey); likewise, three of the top five seller’s markets are on the Pacific coast: #1 San Jose, #2 San Francisco, and #4 Seattle. (#3 Denver is also in the West, while #5 Nashville is not.)

Zillow also ranked the top five buyers’ and sellers markets within the greater Philadelphia market. They are:

Top sellers’ markets:

  1. Bear, Del.
  2. Chester Springs, Pa.
  3. Phoenixville, Pa.
  4. Lansdale, Pa.
  5. Nether Providence Township, Pa.

Top buyers’ markets:

  1. Woodbury, N.J.
  2. Lindenwold, N.J.
  3. Pine Hill, N.J.
  4. Berlin Township, N.J.
  5. Cheltenham, Pa.

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