Best Places to Sell a Suburban Home

Sellers’ markets are rare this year, but there are some suburban areas where prices are holding steady or rising and time on the market is measured in days or months, not years.

Forbes magazine took a look at the 90 days of sales activity in the 75 largest Census-defined metro areas. It narrowed its search to those communities with at least 75 homes on the market, and eliminated suburbs where it takes more than 125 days to sell an average home.

The magazine also cut out any suburb in which year-over-hear price declines were greater than 10 percent and where more than 50 percent of sellers had to reduce their asking price to sell.

What’s left? A list of the top 10 suburban markets where properties are selling at competitive prices relatively rapidly.

Berkeley, Calif.: 14 miles north of San Francisco; median home price, $799,986; 73 days
Bedford, Texas: 22 miles west of Dallas; $169,093; 84 days
Venice, Calif.: 16 miles west of Los Angeles; $1.5 million; 95 days
Kennesaw, Ga.: 28 miles northwest of Atlanta; $241,196; 104 days
Sugarland, Texas: 20 miles southwest of Houston; $265,418; 106 days
Midvale, Utah: 13 miles south of Salt Lake City; $255,003; 106 days
Matthews, N.C.: 12 miles southeast of Charlotte; $320,990; 127 days
Encinitas, Calif.: 28 miles north of San Diego; $1.23 million; 100 days
Waltham, Mass.: 26 miles west of Boston; $790,986; 79 days
Montclair, N.J.: 13 miles west of New York City; $450,761; 115 days