The best cities for home sales during the third quarter of 2017 will likely be Colorado Springs, Colo.; Chicago; Washington; Reno, Nev.; and Lexington, Ky., according to ATTOM Data solutions Q2 2017 Pre-Mover Housing Index.
ATTOM’s index identifies the markets with the highest pre-mover indices during the second quarter, which ATTOM said is predictive of strong sales activity in the third quarter. The index uses data collected from purchase loan applications on residential real estate transactions to determine where homes will likely be sold in the next 30 to 90 days.
“Markets with a healthy mix of access to good jobs and relatively affordable housing attracted the most interest from pre-movers in the second quarter, a harbinger of strong home sales activity in the third quarter,” ATTOM Data Solutions Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said in a release.
“Meanwhile in some of the nation’s hottest housing markets, there was more pre-mover interest in outlying counties further away from jobs but with more affordable homes to purchase,” Blomquist added. “We see this pattern playing out in places like Denver, New York, Seattle, and Southern California.”
The top five markets all posted a pre-mover index above 200, or twice the national average, ATTOM said. Other top markets in the second quarter were Tampa, Fla. (198); Kingsport-Bristol, Tenn. (195); Lancaster, Pa. (191); Jacksonville, Fla. (189); and Charleston, S.C. (188).
According to ATTOM, the cities with the lowest pre-mover indices in the second quarter were San Francisco (31); Rochester, N.Y. (32); Honolulu (36); Providence, R.I. (44); and Grand Rapids, Mich. (46).
The average percentage of wages needed to buy a median priced home in the 189 counties with an above-average pre-mover index was 38 percent, compared with 42 percent of wages on average needed to buy a median-priced home in the 120 counties with a pre-mover index below the national average, ATTOM said.
The index found that the average home value of homes sought by pre-movers in the 189 counties with an above-average pre-mover index was $279,863, compared with an average home value of $306,802 in the 120 counties with a pre-mover index below the national average.