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Markets where mortgage preapproval matters most

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South San Jose

If you’ve ever experienced a rejected offer, it could be because your client didn’t get preapproved for a mortgage. And in some places, getting preapproved could be the difference between getting the keys to a new house or grabbing the keys to your car to go see another one.

NerdWallet, a San Francisco-based financial advisory company, just revealed the top 10 markets in America where preapproval plays an important factor in securing a property. The company used data from Zillow regarding 175 cities across the country, which centered around how long properties were listed for sale and the inventory age, to figure out what markets offered the fastest-selling homes.

To start, NerdWallet looked at the median number of days homes sold were on the market for every month during 2015, including foreclosure resales. This determined the annual average. Next, the age of inventory was taken into consideration. This is the median number of days all active listings were available. This, too, was calcualed to determine the average.

Why?

Using this data, NerdWallet was able to determine the fastest moving markets by using the average days on market compared with available inventory. In determining this, NerdWallet was able to learn which markets were the hottest and in what cities having the advantage of mortgage preapproval could be most helpful.

Fast moving markets are the result of high demand placed upon low supply of inventory. As a result of knowing which markets experience high demand on low supply with fast turnover rates, NerdWallet was able to learn which places in the country can benefit the buyer the most by getting preapproved for a mortgage.

The top ten cities where mortgage preapproval can benefit the buyer the most are:
1. San Jose, California
2. San Francisco
3. Denver
4. Greeley, Colorado
5. Dallas-Fort Worth
6. Seattle
7. Boulder, Colorado
8. Santa Cruz, California
9. Austin, Texas
10. Portland, Oregon

The states with the most cities on the full list are California, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Texas and Tennessee.

Email Britt Chester