Low-Priced Zip Codes Still Selling Fastest

After last week’s note on the topic of dramatically disparate buyer interest in different property types I thought I should update the stats on which zip codes have seen the biggest increases in sales activity. To change it up a bit this time, I sorted the list of zip codes based on January 2009 median price instead of sorting zips by growth in sales volume as I had previously. (The median price is a flawed indicator, for reasons often discussed here, but it’s the only thing available at the zip code level and besides, it is good enough for gauging the kinds of broad trends we are looking for with this study).

The findings displayed on the accompanying table should be no big surprise to regular readers. The twenty most expensive zip codes on the list averaged a 3 percent year-over-year increase in sales. Which is not actually that bad, given the state of things in general. But the twenty least expensive zip codes saw annual sales volume increase by a comparatively huge 87 percent. (Click here for a more detailed look at the zip codes).