Mapped: Metros Where Homes Are Selling the Fastest as U.S. Market Stalls

by Snejana Farberov

Even as the national housing market slowed to a crawl in August, a handful of metros, half in the Midwest, defied the trend with the fastest-selling homes in the U.S.

The typical U.S. home waited for a buyer for 60 days, a full week longer compared with a year ago, according to the August 2025 Housing Market Trends report from Realtor.com®.

Yet in Milwaukee the median for-sale property remained unsold for just 32 days—roughly half the national days-on-market figure for August, making it the fastest-selling metro among the top 50.

Notably, of the 12 metros with the lowest median days on market (below 40), six were located in the Midwest, three in the Northeast, and three in the South.

"With high mortgage rates and stubbornly high list prices keeping demand and home sales at record low levels in most parts of the country, relatively less expensive markets have become more affordable and more attractive," says Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel.

In August, the median listing price in Milwaukee inched up just 0.2% from a year ago to $399,900, well below the national median of $429,990, which was flat year over year.

Meanwhile, Brew City’s inventory of for-sale homes edged up 6% compared with August 2024—but new listings saw a 3.4% year-over-year dip.

Milwaukee had the fastest market pace among the top 50 metros in August, with the typical house there staying on the market for just 32 days.

On top of that, Milwaukee had the lowest months of supply in June, at just 2.7, putting it squarely in the seller’s market column.

The months of supply metric represents how many months it would take for all the for-sale homes on the market (including pending listings) to be sold at the current sales pace.

The lower the months of supply, the faster the market—and the more leverage sellers have.

If supply in a given market slips below four months, it's a seller's market. If supply reaches four to six months, it's a balanced market. And above six months of supply translates into a buyer's market.

Buffalo, NY, home of the Buffalo Bills and world-famous saucy chicken wings, saw homes flying off the shelves in August, with the typical property lasting just 37 days on the market, the second-fastest pace in the U.S., according to the latest report.

The city of 276,000 inhabitants also stood out last month for being one of just two major metros that saw its for-sale homes selling two days faster than last year (the other being Kansas City, MO).

Buffalo, NY, ranked second in housing market pace in August, with median days of market dipping to 37.

The typical home in Buffalo last month came with a $285,450 price tag, up 2% compared with the same period in 2024.

"Buffalo is one of only five top 50 metros with median list prices below $300,000," says Krimmel. "When the cost of financing is high, potential buyers can economize by leaning more heavily on cash purchases, larger down payments, and/or choosing cheaper homes and markets."

At the same time, the metro’s active inventory and new listings saw year-over-year growth, at 10.9% and 8.4%, respectively.

Chicago ranked third-fastest, with the median days on the market in Second City standing at 37 in August, up just one day year over year.

Second City's divided housing market

Mario Greco, real estate agent and founder of the MG Group, confirms to Realtor.com that Chicago's sales pace in August was higher than expected, likely because mortgage interest rates dropped to the lowest levels of the year, driving sellers to slash prices in a bid to offload their properties before the fall.

But Greco points out that the greater Chicago metro is not a monolith when it comes to real estate.

"Not all Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs were brisk," says Greco. "Some have started to show signs of weakness as the jobs and general economy outlook begins to turn more uncertain."

The typical home in Chicago waited for a buyer for 37 days in August, but the metro's real estate varies widely across neighborhoods.

Matt Laricy, managing partner at Laricy real estate team, stresses that the Chicago metro's housing market varies greatly depending on the location, from the downtown area to the outskirts and suburbs.

According to Laricy, the most densely populated area of Chicago is one of the biggest buyer's markets in the U.S. where "nothing sells," he says, revealing that some properties stay on the market unsold for three or four years.

"When you go outside the downtown market, it's like money doesn't matter. Comps don't matter," notes the agent, adding that if a home were to go on sale in the affluent North Side neighborhood of Lincoln Park for $500,000, it would sell for $100,000 above asking price within a day.

Looking at the suburbs, Laricy says the market is even tighter, leaving sellers there firmly in control.

"There's no inventory. If anything comes up, it's like a feeding frenzy for a shark," says Laricy. "The main reason is the fact that a lot of people that have kids or want to have kids want to move out of the city and start their family and raise them, put them in good schools."

Laricy attributes the persistent hotness of the Chicago suburbs to what he calls "boomerang buyers"—locals who had moved away during the pandemic but later had a change of heart, fueling a reverse exodus from the popular COVID-era boomtowns of the South and West.

"Places like Florida are getting demolished, places like Texas get demolished, because the people who moved there are like, 'OK, well, I've had my fun. I'm not from Florida. I'm not used to having to move because a hurricane is going to come and possibly tear down my house, so I'm going to go back to Chicago,'" explains Laricy.

And for the most part, the returning Chicagoans are choosing to settle in safer, more prosperous suburbs rather than inner-city neighborhoods with elevated crime rates, causing inventory levels in those better-off communities to plunge.

According to the August housing report, the celebrated home of the Chicago Bulls and deep-dish pizza was among the metros where home supply recovered the least compared with its pre-pandemic levels.

As of June, Chicago metro's months of supply were below four, signaling that it remained a seller’s market due to its tight inventory and high demand.

In fact, new listings in the Windy City retreated 0.3% from a year ago, while the overall inventory increased by just 2.5%.

Grand Rapids, MI, and Cincinnati saw the typical listing stay on the market for 37 days, while in Detroit, Hartford, CT, and Providence, RI, the median days on market reached 38 in August.

Lastly, in these four markets spread across the Midwest and the South, the typical for-sale dwelling waited for a buyer for 39 days: Louisville, KY, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis.

Interestingly, the nation's capital had the highest median listing price among the 12 fastest markets, at roughly $600,000, and saw its housing inventory surge nearly 55% from a year ago, the most of any large metro.

While three of those four markets are located in the relatively well-supplied South, Krimmel, the Realtor.com economist, says he views them more as extensions of the Midwestern trends.

"The South is such a large region —it technically includes both Baltimore and DC as well as Oklahoma City—that there are important subregional characteristics at play, too," he explains.