An ongoing competitive market has completely reshuffled the U.S. cities experiencing housing shortages, with historically affordable Phoenix now seeing the biggest shortage in the U.S. even as infamously expensive New York City enjoys a surplus of housing.
Those conclusions come via a new report from DeedClaim, a software firm that does online deed preparation. The report ultimately found that out of 149 U.S. metro areas, a total of 24 are experiencing a housing shortage right now. That shortage is most severe in Phoenix, the report continues, with the Arizona metropolis currently suffering from a shortfall of nearly 4,700 housing units.
The rest of the list is dominated by the South and West. After Phoenix, the remaining top five cities experiencing a housing shortage include Dallas and Austin, both in Texas, followed by Charlotte and Raleigh, both in North Carolina. The report goes on to note that North Carolina and Texas also both have four cities in the top twenty. Utah, Washington and Arizona have two cities each in the top twenty.
Credit: DeedClaim
Despite the shortages, though, there are cities where buyers and renters might have an easier time.
The most notable of these cities is New York, which the report says has a surplus of more than 66,700 housing units. The other top five cities with housing surpluses include Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta. The historically difficult housing markets of San Francisco and Boston landed at numbers eight and 10 on the list of markets with surpluses.
The report goes on to point out that “many of the cities where housing availability surpasses demand also have some of the highest costs of living in the country.” That cost of living may have contributed to the surpluses, the report adds, by driving people away and into less expensive areas.
On the other hand, some less expensive metro areas have housing surpluses as well.
“Our analysis revealed that some of the cities with more housing supply than demand are actually relatively affordable,” the report continues. “Detroit, Michigan, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Houston, Texas, all made the ranking; the cost of living in both Detroit and Houston is 26 percent cheaper than that of Los Angeles, and Minneapolis is 20 percent cheaper.”
To come up with its rankings of metros with housing shortages and surpluses, DeedClaim analyzed listings from realtor.com in May, as well as looked at population changes over the course of a year.
While the findings will likely be welcome news to some home shoppers in expensive metros, they also confirm what agents have been telling Inman for months: The market remains unusually competitive in much of the country. The report also ultimately concludes that “today’s real estate market is a seller’s dream, with major demand and increasingly prevalent supply shortages across the country.”
