Realtor.com: 20 hottest housing markets in Feb.

Dive Brief:

Realtor.com revealed its 20 hottest U.S. real estate markets for February 2016, and it’s all about what’s good for both buyers (availability) and sellers (high demand) in an environment of limited inventory. California dominated the list with 12 out of 20 markets, followed by Colorado and Florida.
Lack of inventory, according to Realtor.com, has resulted in a rise in the median list price to $230,000 in February, up 1% from January and 8% from February 2015.
The site said listing inventory is expected to be 1% higher than January. However, homes are moving faster, with a 96-day median age of inventory — down 4% from January and 6% from February 2015.

Dive Insight:

Realtor.com economist Jonathan Smoke said one of the reasons the housing market seems to be heating up a little early this year is that buyers who couldn’t make a deal last year are getting a jump on the competition.

In assembling the top 20 list, Smoke used Realtor.com data and considered the number of listing views and median days on the market as barometers of demand and supply, respectively. Realtor.com said the top markets are where listings were viewed two to five times more often than the national average and where homes moved 44 to 78 days faster.

"These are the places that are head and shoulders hotter than the rest of the country—and they’re also accelerating," Smoke said in a release.

The presence of perennial list-toppers San Francisco and San Jose are no surprise, but recently there have been rumblings that those markets might not be able to support escalating values given the lack of inventory and widening gap between home prices and income. Some experts warn that this is creating a housing bubble in the Bay Area that may soon pop.

Realtor.com's full February 2016 hot list includes: