{"id":169866,"date":"2025-08-23T19:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169866\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T19:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T19:21:12","slug":"zillows-new-ratings-reveal-whether-its-a-buyers-or-sellers-housing-market-in-over-250-metros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169866\/","title":{"rendered":"Zillow\u2019s new ratings reveal whether it\u2019s a buyer\u2019s or seller\u2019s housing market in over 250 metros"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resiclubanalytics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ResiClub<\/a>\u00a0in your inbox?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.resiclubanalytics.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0ResiClub\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.resiclubanalytics.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Zillow economists use an economic model known as the Zillow Market Heat Index to gauge the competitiveness of housing markets across the country.<\/p>\n<p>This model looks at key indicators\u2014including home price changes, inventory levels, and days on market\u2014to generate a score showing whether a market favors sellers or buyers.<\/p>\n<p>Higher scores point to hotter, seller-friendly metro housing markets. Lower scores signal cooler markets where buyers hold more negotiating power.<\/p>\n<p>According to Zillow:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Score of 70 or above = strong sellers market<\/li>\n<li>Score from 55 to 69 = sellers market<\/li>\n<li>Score from 44 to 55 = neutral market<\/li>\n<li>Score from 28 to 44 = buyers market<\/li>\n<li>Score of 27 or below = strong buyers market<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/i-1-91391485-zillow-new-ratings-buyers-or-sellers-housing-market-250-metros.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91391540\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Nationally, Zillow rates the U.S. housing market at <strong>52<\/strong> in its July 2025 reading, published this month.<\/p>\n<p>That said, Zillow\u2019s reading varies significantly across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Among the 250 largest metro area housing markets, these 10 are the HOTTEST markets, where <strong>sellers<\/strong> have the most power:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rochester, NY \u2192 145<\/li>\n<li>Syracuse, NY \u2192 91<\/li>\n<li>Hartford, CT \u2192 87<\/li>\n<li>Buffalo, NY \u2192 87<\/li>\n<li>Charleston, WV \u2192 86<\/li>\n<li>Binghamton, NY \u2192 80<\/li>\n<li>Springfield, MA \u2192 77<\/li>\n<li>Albany, NY \u2192 75<\/li>\n<li>Poughkeepsie, NY \u2192 75<\/li>\n<li>Norwich, CT \u2192 75<\/li>\n<li>Springfield, IL \u2192 75<\/li>\n<li>Kingston, NY \u2192 75<\/li>\n<li>Lansing, MI \u2192 73<\/li>\n<li>Ann Arbor, MI \u2192 73<\/li>\n<li>Bridgeport, CT \u2192 72<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Among the 250 largest metro area housing markets, these 10 are the COLDEST markets, where <strong>buyers<\/strong> have the most power:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Jackson, TN \u2192 13<\/li>\n<li>Terre Haute, IN \u2192 21<\/li>\n<li>Macon, GA \u2192 24<\/li>\n<li>Lafayette, IN \u2192 25<\/li>\n<li>Asheville, NC \u2192 26<\/li>\n<li>Beaumont, TX \u2192 26<\/li>\n<li>Gulfport, MS \u2192 27<\/li>\n<li>Brownsville, TX \u2192 28<\/li>\n<li>Naples, FL \u2192 28<\/li>\n<li>Daphne, AL \u2192 28<\/li>\n<li>Lubbock, TX \u2192 29<\/li>\n<li>Panama City, FL \u2192 30<\/li>\n<li>Punta Gorda, FL \u2192 31<\/li>\n<li>Longview, TX \u2192 32<\/li>\n<li>Waco, TX \u2192 32<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Does ResiClub agree with Zillow\u2019s assessment?<\/p>\n<p>Directionally, I believe Zillow has correctly identified many regional housing markets where buyers have gained the most power\u2014particularly around the Gulf\u2014as well as markets where sellers have maintained (relatively speaking) somewhat of a grip, including large portions of the Northeast and Midwest.<\/p>\n<p>Based on my personal housing analysis, I consider Southwest Florida the weakest\/softest chunk of the U.S. housing market. Not too far behind are pockets of Texas, Colorado, and Arizona markets where there\u2019s built up unsold spec inventory.<\/p>\n<p>In my view, many West Coast markets are softer right now than Zillow\u2019s analysis suggests\u2014in particular the areas that have recently seen big jumps in active inventory for sale.<\/p>\n<p>What did this Zillow analysis look like back in spring 2021 during the Pandemic Housing Boom? Below is Zillow\u2019s July 2021 reading\u2014published in August 2021.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/i-2-91391485-zillow-new-ratings-buyers-or-sellers-housing-market-250-metros.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91391541\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The early-rate deadline for Fast Company\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/apply\/most-innovative-companies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Most Innovative Companies Awards<\/a> is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/apply\/most-innovative-companies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Apply today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert\u2019s ResiClub\u00a0in your inbox?\u00a0Subscribe\u00a0to the\u00a0ResiClub\u00a0newsletter. Zillow economists use an economic model&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[64,8166,135,50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-169866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-housing-market","10":"tag-markets","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115079708269372112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}