But despite dire headlines to the contrary, there still exist red-hot housing pockets where listings are going off the market within weeks—especially in smaller cities.

As we approach the busier spring homebuying season, Creditnews Research ranked the fastest-selling housing markets in America within the top 100 most populous metropolitan areas.

The study also compared how these rankings have evolved since the beginning of Covid and discovered a major shift in best-selling markets.

In fact, none of the 10 fastest-selling metros before Covid made it to the best-selling list today, and vice versa. For example, today's top-selling metro Hartford ranked just 48th before Covid.

Part of the reason behind this realignment is different inventory levels across the nation—which, we found, has a strong connection with how fast listings sell.

Key Findings

The top 10 fastest-selling metro areas of 2024 are all located on the East Coast and Midwest, with Hartford, CT, Rochester, NY, Syracuse, NY, Harrisburg, PA, and Richmond, PA coming out on top;

Five of the top 10 fastest-selling metros were also among the top 10 areas that lost the most per-capita housing inventory since the beginning of Covid;

The top 10 slowest-selling metro areas are Austin, TX, McAllen, TX, Poughkeepsie, NY, San Antonio, TX, New Orleans, LA, Jacksonville, FL, Cape Coral, FL, Colorado Springs, CO, Deltona, FL, and New York, NY;

Seven of the top 10 slowest-selling metro areas are located in southern states, and three of them are located in Texas: Austin, McAllen, and San Antonio;

Austin, TX, is also the biggest Covid "loser," with its median listing requiring 66 days to sell, compared to 23 before Covid;

The biggest Covid "winner" is Hartford, CT, with its median days-to-pending marking a major drop from 52 days to eight days between January 2020 and January 2024;

There's a strong correlation between housing inventory and selling pace between January 2020 and January 2024.