Where to Sell Your Home in 2023: Top Markets for Sellers Revealed

The current state of the housing market can be characterized by stalled sellers and reduced demand from buyers. Even with spring fast approaching, home prices are falling from their peaks in many areas and mortgage interest rates are hovering around 7%. With many prospective sellers sitting on the sidelines, new home listings are down by double-digit percentages compared to last year. Despite this, there are still markets where sellers have the advantage. Realtor.com has identified these markets and found that they are mostly smaller, more affordable metropolitan areas in the Midwest and South where regular buyers and investors can still find bargains. To identify these markets, the team focused on the top 150 metropolitan markets over the past year and limited the list to one metro per state to ensure geographic diversity. Here are the top five markets:

1. Davenport, IA

February median list price: $208,700

Year-over-year increase in price per square foot: +38.4%

2. Montgomery, AL

February median list price: $301,165

Year-over-year increase in price per square foot: +26.5%

3. Wichita Falls, TX

February median list price: $169,950

Year-over-year increase in price per square foot: +24.4%

4. Amarillo, TX

February median list price: $225,000

Year-over-year increase in price per square foot: +24.2%

5. Tuscaloosa, AL

February median list price: $292,000

Year-over-year increase in price per square foot: +22.5%

Despite these market conditions, in almost every city across the country, the time spent on the market has gone up year over year. In February, homes spent a couple of days short of 10 weeks on the market, up from about six and a half weeks on the market in February 2022. The reluctance of many sellers to list their homes results from the fact that most sellers are also buyers, and they do not want to give up their current low mortgage rates and enter into a tight, expensive buyer's market with much higher rates. The high home equity that many have built during the past few years, however, gives sellers options for their next move, even if they do not get as much as their neighbors did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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