In a real estate climate that many would call 'competitive', to say the least, the latest data from Realtor.com sheds light on those cities where homes are fetching prices well above what sellers are asking. Topping the charts is San Jose, CA, where a house infamous as a crime scene surprisingly sold for $200,000 over its multi-million dollar listing price.

Mired in an environment where home prices usually hover just under asking, the Santa Clara sale comes as an outlier. According to Realtor.com, "The typical U.S. home has sold for less than asking since August 2022," underscoring an ebbing market. And while Santa Clara stands out, San Jose has claimed the highest over-asking home sales at 6.2% over the listed price, contrasting the general trend.

For anyone keeping an eye on the market, it’s clear that the California Bay Area remains a fierce battleground for homebuyers. "The areas where homes are selling the most over list price are mostly located in the Northeast and the West," Realtor.com’s senior economic data analyst Hannah Jones said in the report. As industry experts like Brad Gill, a broker with more than two decades of experience, suggest, San Jose's geography restricts market growth, which fuels the competition.

Interestingly, places like Hartford, CT, and Kansas City, MO, join San Jose and San Francisco in commanding prices above asking, yet the medium home prices in seven of the top ten cities remain below the $500,000 mark. These surprising statistics reflect a market wherein a significant share of buyers are willing to go beyond the asking price to secure a property within feasible commuting distance of major cities as populations in the Northeast migrate to places like Hartford, CT, and New Haven, CT, in the race to find a balance between work and living space.

Here are the top 10 cities where homes sell for the most over the asking price, curated by extensive research by Realtor.com, along with the kicker: the median list price for each area. San Jose, with its $1.3 million median home price and a 6.2% over-asking sales marker, leads the pack, followed by the likes of Hartford, CT, and San Francisco, CA, with a median home price of $1.15 million and homes selling for 3.6% over the asking price.

The recent transaction in Santa Clara has opened a conversation on the value of location, irrespective of the property's history, and the lengths to which market shortages push prospective homeowners. The Realtor.com report and insights from professionals draw a clear picture of a market adapting to the ebbs and flows of economic turbulence and shifts in living priorities post-pandemic era.