If you’re shopping for a new home, one region of the U.S. in particular offers competitive pricing and an abundance of choice.
The South leads the country as the best region for buying a brand new home, according to a new report from Realtor.com. Eight out of the 10 leading metro areas for buying newly-built are located in the Southern U.S., with Charleston, South Carolina leading the way. Outside of the South, only Boise City, Idaho and Madison, Wisconsin made the list of the top metro areas.
“Markets such as Charleston, Greenville and Boise are demonstrating what new-home buyers value most: choice and pricing that make a newly built home a realistic option,” Realtor.com Senior Economist Joel Berner said in the report.
In ranking the best markets for buying a brand new home, the new report considered a handful of factors including what share of listings new homes account for, home much more or less buyers pay for a new home, and how many days new homes spend on the market. The ranking also included data on the climate-related risk of new homes compared to older homes.
“New construction is one of the most important ways to expand the supply of homes available to buyers, but the opportunity is not evenly distributed across the country,” Berner said. “This year’s ranking shows that Southern metros are not only building more homes; they are also creating conditions where buyers can find newly built homes at prices that compete with, and in some cases beat, existing homes.”
In Charleston, buyers will actually wind up paying 12% less for a new house compared to the median existing home — an alluring advantage for home shoppers drawn to the unique perks buying something brand new. In Charleston, the median new build list price is $443,273 compared to $504,832 for pre-existing homes. New homes make up nearly a quarter of the total listings there, a substantial slice of the pie for shoppers who know that they don’t want a previously owned home.
Growing a market for new homes
All of the top ten Southern metro areas for buying a new home are located in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee — and that’s not a coincidence. For residential real estate developers, not all markets are created equal. Local building rules and zoning restrictions combine with cheaper land to make those states the nation’s hottest hubs for new home construction.
“The concentration of top performers in smaller, high-growth metros is a reminder that housing supply responds to local conditions,” Berner said. “When communities make it feasible to build, buyers have more options.”
New homes may lack the charm and character of their older counterparts, but their perks play out in a different way. Practical buyers can appreciate the energy efficiency benefits and the relative lack of maintenance costs creeping up in the first few years of owning a newly-built home.
Out of the cities that ranked high for new home shoppers, nearly all of them were college towns with a major school attracting home buyers, creating jobs, and driving local economic activity. Texas didn’t crack the top ten, but Houston, McAllen, Austin, and San Antonio all showed up in the top 25 metro areas rich with options for anyone shopping for a brand new home.