10 Most Challenging Housing Markets

The hardest places to sell homes are those with falling prices and a large inventory of unsold homes.

Forbes magazine, which examined markets all over the country, concluded that Florida has the most markets that are really in the doldrums. Several cities there are overbuilt, saddled with lousy loans and flat sales.

Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan-based real estate appraisal company that assisted with the analysis, says it is hard for a city to climb out of a slowdown because in the best of circumstances there’s generally a three- to six-month lag between the time buyers start putting a serious dent into the inventory and the time when prices start to improve.

Here are the 10 markets where Forbes says the sales opportunities are the most challenging:

1. Miami
2. Orlando
3. Phoenix
4. Tampa
5. Los Angeles
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Chicago
8. Baltimore
9. San Diego
10. Denver

Sources: Forbes, Matt Woolsey (04/15/08)