For more housing inventory choices, look to pricier metros

More expensive, more listings

Want more housing inventory to choose from? Then you might want to head to a pricier market. According to a new analysis, home listings are up in many of the nation’s more expensive metros.

California king

According to a new analysis from Realtor.com, some of the nation’s most expensive markets have seen serious jumps in housing inventory.

The biggest increase? That was in San Jose, California, where listings rose 44 percent over the year. Homes in the area average $1.2 million and spend just 26 days on the market.

Seattle — another pricy Western housing market — took second, with a 29 percent spike in listings year over year. Seattle homes hover just under $570K.

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Other areas that also saw big jumps in housing inventory include Providence, Rhode Island; Portland, Oregon; San Diego, Sacramento, Riverside and San Francisco, California; Dallas; and Jacksonville, Florida. The most affordable of those markets is Jacksonville, where homes average just $308,000.

“July inventory growth is in high-priced, competitive markets, and often at the pricier end of these markets,” according to Danielle Hale, Realtor.com’s chief economist. “It’s not just California markets that have seen an increase in inventory, markets on both coasts and in the South reported inventory increases in July.”

In fact, a full third of the country’s biggest 45 metros saw a rise in inventory last month.

Metros where housing inventory dropped

Housing inventory actually dropped in three of the nation’s 20 most populated metros.

Austin, Texas, saw a 1 percent dip in listings over the year, as did Miami and Los Angeles.

Still, according to Hale, these “signs of an inventory turnaround are encouraging.”

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Get today’s mortgage rates

Considering buying a home in one of these hot markets? Then shop around and see what mortgage rates you qualify for today.