The 10 worst selling real estate markets in America
Worst performing cities:
Despite news that the pending home sales index jumped at the highest rate since 2001, some real estate markets are struggling along.
We’ve recently discussed the best small towns to buy a home and outlined most rapidly growing counties but today we’d like to reveal the areas that are struggling.
The 10 worst performing markets:
Below is the Forbes.com list of 10 worst performing housing markets with Forbes’ explanations as to why they are under-performing.
- Milwaukee, WI: Some cities’ housing crisis stemmed from rampant overbuilding. Others can blame the decline of the manufacturing industry. Milwaukee has felt both. The worst-selling housing market saw a 47% increase in unsold homes between 2008 and 2009, thanks both to underlying economic problems and overzealous development during the housing bubble.
- Denver, CO: Denver doesn’t come to mind as a housing-crisis hot spot, but the city that once looked like it would escape the housing bust unscathed now shows signs of strain. More than 42,000 homes are on the market in the metro, 27% more than last year.
- Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles has yet to recover from the blows it took when the housing bubble burst. Home sales fell by 5% in the metro between 2008 and 2009, while they rose, if only modestly, in most other large metros. Home sale prices peaked in late 2006, and it looks like the remnants of overbuilding will continue to clog the housing supply.
- St. Louis, MO: The city has shed jobs and seen housing prices plummet. Inventory in the metro is up 36%, in part as a result of its 11% unemployment rate. Manufacturing jobs no longer drive the city’s economy, and slow sales are just one symptom of its economic maladies.
- San Francisco, CA: Unemployment has reached 11% here, and home prices fell by 6% between 2008 and 2009. The area’s poor-home-sale performance shows that California’s housing woes spared no city.
- New York, NY: New York likely made the list in part because the condominium market, which drives much of Manhattan real estate, wasn’t included in the analysis. Still, not everything’s rosy in the Big Apple: Sale prices were down 13% between 2008 and 2009, and inventory has seen a 13% rise.
- Cincinnati, OH: Like Cleveland and other Rust Belt cities, Cincinnati suffers from a lack of jobs–the city is 11% unemployed–which has cut sales dramatically and left a glut of unsold houses behind. Inventory in the city rose 48% between 2008 and 2009.
- Cleveland, OH: Cleveland was suffering before the housing crisis hit, but the bursting of the bubble surely didn’t help. Unemployment is at 10% in the metro, which has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs. That means families don’t have the means to buy, and homes remain unsold.
- Atlanta, GA: Inventory was up 6% in 2009 from the previous year. That may not sound like much, but together with flat quarter-over-quarter single-family home sale prices and sluggish sales rates, the overbuilt city shows significant signs of strain.
- San Diego, CA: Scores of new condominiums were constructed before the market peaked in the first quarter of 2006, driving up prices and spurring overbuilding. Many units were built for speculative buyers, but today the brand-new luxury buildings sit empty.
If you’re in any of these cities, surely there are parts of these cities or market segments like short sals that are pockets of good news, let us know what they are in comments below!
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This article published on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 7:20 am | Contact the editor
Topics: News
About this Columnist (Full Profile)
AGBeat Editor-in-Chief: Lani, named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influential, as well as 12 Most Influential Women in Real Estate, is a business writer hailing from the great state of Texas in the city of Austin. As a digital native, Lani is immersed not only in advanced technologies and new media, but is also a stats nerd often burried in piles of reports. Lani is a proven leader, thoughtful speaker, and vested partner at AGBeat.
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- Don Groff:
The 10 worst selling real estate markets in America http://bit.ly/bQe4D1 #realestate
- Denver named second worst selling market, Zillow data questioned:
[...] over a week ago, we shared with you Forbes’ top ten worst selling markets, listing Denver, Colorado as the second worst market, noting 42,000 homes on the market, a 27% [...]
- AgentGenius:
#agnow [...] over a week ago, we shared with you Forbes’ top ten worst selling markets, listing Denver, Color… http://bit.ly/aF0svi
- Forbes Sucks at Reporting Statistics | Denver Real Estate and Relocation:
[...] writes for Forbes uncovered some little know facts. Francesca Levy announced to the world that Denver is the Second Worst Real Estate Markets in the Country! She states “I understand that these numbers don’t jibe personal observations of many realtors [...]
- AgentGenius:
#agnow [...] writes for Forbes uncovered some little know facts. Francesca Levy announced to the world that Denve… http://bit.ly/aF0svi
- Maureen McCabe:
Milwaukee St. Louis Cinci … Denver stood up 2 Forbes Faux 10 WORST housing mrkt list is your city info correct? http://bit.ly/d60SnW
- AgentGenius:
#agnow New wrinkles.. the writer says the list is NOT saying what we think it is saying! John Rebchook writes
… http://bit.ly/aF0svi
- AgentGenius:
#agnow Metro Denver citizens have united in a common cause to defend the true statistics of our fair city. I chall… http://bit.ly/aF0svi
- AgentGenius:
#agnow Forbes has removed both stories! Never, never, never, never give up.
Thanks AG! Thanks all who called Fo… http://bit.ly/aF0svi
- AgentGenius:
#agnow forbes.com/2010/04/19/inventory-denver-zillow-lifestyle-real-estate-inflated-forbes_print.html http://bit.ly/aF0svi
Benn Rosales
Conal Campbell
Elijah May
Lani Rosales
Tara Steele
Marti Trewe
Charlene Jimenez
An additional load to the San Diego market are the tons of condo conversions completed or in the pipe when the crash began. It’s not been pretty.
Yeah! Boston area didn’t make the List! A great feature of the Massachusetts housing makeup is that there is not a lot of land to develop. Therefore, it creates a economy that does not over-build and, I believe, automatically helps real estate values stay strong. I look at the numbers put out by the big moving companies to see if we are losing or gaining citizens. Unfortunately, we have been losing the past few years, so hence, the real estate market affected us also.
Hopefully these markets soon stabilize. It can certainly be tough for home sellers in these markets. If the unemployment rate improves, home sales will follow.
Somebody is smoking funny weed at Forbes.com
According to my figures Denver has 18,869 units (combined single family detached and attached) on the market. At end of February 2010.
At same time last year we had 20,059. In my arithmetic book that is MINUS 5.93% not 27% more than last year.
Denver says Horse pucky to Forbes reporting.
I always cringe when I see these lists hoping Tampa is not on them but sometimes I don’t think they are accurate.
Danny, all of these “top 10″ lists look at so many different variables, so it’s probably accurate for the variables they used but inaccurate if you throw in other variables. It’s interesting to think about nonetheless!
Okay so San Fran is on Forbes’ 10 worst performing markets as well as their 10 largest price increasing cities, what gives? Are the reporters over there not swapping notes anymore?
The St. Louis stats usually paint an inaccurate picture. The City of St. Louis is an independent city which succeeded from St. Louis County about 100 years ago. But when people site stats, they normally only look at the City, which includes just the downtown and urban areas. All of the suburbs are in St. Louis County, and the outer ring suburbs are in St. Charles County. The city has about 300,000 of the 2.5mm people in the area.
Sales are way down in much of the city, though there are still areas that are doing pretty well. The suburbs are doing better, at least for single family homes. We aren’t yet at a balanced market, but we’re working our way there.
New wrinkles.. the writer says the list is NOT saying what we think it is saying! John Rebchook writes
“Levy told me that the article didn’t say that Denver had the second-worst housing market in the country, and she did not mean to imply that, although she could see how people were reaching the conclusion. She said it was based on a “‘very narrow ” metric. And that is the rub. She used data from Zillow.com, a large, giant aggregator of real estate information across the country. Using information on Zillow’s Web site, she found more than 42,000 houses in a 10-county are listed for sale. That is more than double the number of homes listed for sale by Metrolist.”
What did she mean to imply about Denver or other cities on the list?
Rebchook’s latest post says Levy (Forbes reporter) said she did not know that Zillow was reporting how many listings are on their site.
Levy is giving Denver a second look, according to InsideRealEstateNews.com. How about Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cinci. Cleveland and other cities on the list? Is she going to stand by what ever she is implying in those cities based on data from Zillow that does not mean what she thought it meant? Or is she looking at the data for all those MSAs? Do the mayors of Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cinci, etc. need to get involved to get their cities housing market portrayed correctly? Levy used Zillow because they look at an MSA not at a small area. All Zillow is looking at is what is on their site and how those numbers move up and down.
How Zillow can have 42,000 in the Denver MSA is still a mystery, isn’t it?
Metro Denver citizens have united in a common cause to defend the true statistics of our fair city. I challenge the other areas named in these lists to do the same.
It is time we hold the media accountable for what they write. Using faulty data does not magically create a true representation.
There is power in our words and that power is not exclusive to the media anymore. Challenge them, show them their errors, make them tell the truth.
We owe it to our consumers.
forbes.com/2010/04/19/inventory-denver-zillow-lifestyle-real-estate-inflated-forbes_print.html
Forbes has removed both stories! Never, never, never, never give up.
Thanks AG! Thanks all who called Forbes and Francesca Levy to task.
You rock!
kk