From Real Estate Journal.com

Top Cities for Home Sellers;
Finding the Right Time to Buy

By Lauren Baier Kim

Here's a look at what's new in real estate markets across the U.S. from around the Web.

Buyer's or seller's market?

Is your town a buyer's or a seller's market? Since real-estate is local and housing markets' strengths may vary from city to city, keep an eye on these clues to determine how housing sales are faring in your neighborhood, says CNNMoney.com:


• Look at the amount of time (per the current sales pace) it would take to sell all the homes currently up for sale -- you can get this information from your real-estate broker or on sites like Trulia.com. Less than 6.5 months is a seller's market; more than 6.5 months is a buyer's market.

• Compare how many days it takes to sell a home against say, six months ago to see if the amount has risen or decreased. (You can also obtain this info from your real-estate broker.) If homes generally take less than a month to sell, it's a seller's market. More than 90 days is a buyer's market.

• Pick a handful of local homes that are on the market and track them weekly. If you notice frequent price cuts, exclamation signs in their real-estate listings or multiple open houses, the market is probably weak, CNNMoney.com says.

Top cities for home sellers

Which city has the most favorable housing market for homeowners looking to sell? Raleigh, N.C., according to a Forbes.com study, which features a slideshow of its top-rated metros. The Web site looked at cities' supply versus demand ratio and evaluated factors like current sales rates, changes in those rates and price stability. Data from Moody's Economy.com and the National Association of Realtors was used. Positive factors boosting Raleigh's housing market are a lack of a significant inventory glut and a healthy local economy, Forbes.com says. San Francisco was ranked as the second-best U.S. seller's market, followed by Austin, Texas; San Antonio; St. Louis; Houston; Portland, Ore.; Dallas; Denver and Baltimore. While Seattle is generally a favorable market for home sellers, there was insufficient data to include that city in its ratings, Forbes.com says.

Coping with contingencies

Home-buying contingencies are becoming more common in today's real estate market, says an article by Minneapolis's Star Tribune. With home sales slowing, some buyers are making their offers contingent on the sale of their current property to reduce the risk of double mortgage payments, the Tribune says. Some sellers won't accept contingencies because of the chance that a buyer won't be able to sell their place, the Tribune says. Because contingencies can turn off sellers, some real-estate agents suggest selling one's residence before buying a new one, the article says. "You have so much bargaining power when your house is sold and you're going in noncontingent," one broker quoted in the article says. To up the chances of getting a seller to accept a contingent offer, show the homeowner that you are serious by offering full price, putting more money down or lowering your own home's asking price, the newspaper says.

Seasonal buying

Spring and summer are the housing market's hottest seasons, but are they the best time to buy? Maybe not, says a Bankrate.com article. While it may be easier to find a home in the spring and summer since there tends to be more houses on the market during those times, you'll face increased competition from other buyers, Bankrate.com says. Also, homeowners are more likely to demand full asking price in the spring and summer because there's usually a greater buying frenzy in those months, the newspaper says. Better deals (in terms of price) may be had in late fall or early winter, when there tends to be fewer buyers, the article says. Homes tend to sell 3% above the annual average price in May through June, at about the average price in early spring and in fall and 3% below the average annual price in December and January, the article says.

Connecticut evades slowdown

Eastern Connecticut has returned to more of a "normal" market, according to the Norwich Bulletin. In most of the region's communities, homes are selling in 90 days or less, says the newspaper, which identifies a "good housing market" as one in which houses sell within 90 days. Houses in New London and Windham County are staying on the market for an average of 94 days, but that's less than the 132 day average from a year ago, the Bulletin says. Prices have dropped just a little in these two areas, down from an average of $312,000 in 2006 to an average of $308,000 to date this year, the newspaper says. One market faring particularly well is Windham, where homes sell at an average of 54 days for an average of $214,000, or 99.98% of their asking prices, the paper says.

-- Ms. Kim is a senior editor at RealEstateJournal.com.