4 features that help homes fly off the market

• Realtor.com, by looking at the number of days on market and Realtor.com page views, has determined which features generate the most interest in a home and move it off the market the fastest.
• Spanish-style homes, although a mere 1% of Realtor.com listings, only spend an average of 47 days on the market, primarily because they’re located in booming California markets, according to the site. City views also speed a home along to sale, spending an average of 83 days on the market.
• Realtor.com also found that homes with stainless steel appliances sell 15% faster, and that proximity to good schools means a house might stay on the market for only 76 days. And contrary to the mansions that garner tons of online views, Realtor.com found that homes priced between $200,000 and $250,000, as well as those between 1,500 and 2,000 square feet, only spent 83 and 86 days, respectively, on the market.

Realtor.com also found that after Spanish-style homes, traditional homes were the most popular — as they likely appealed to those with a mind toward resale, the site predicted. Custom and craftsman homes, however, were tougher sells, but not as tough as Victorian homes.

And while urban views beat ocean views in its analysis, Realtor.com noted that waterside scenery often comes with a waterside price tag, which could be the prohibitive factor.

The real estate site also said that while once a desirable feature, fireplaces don’t have much influence over whether a home sells any faster. Also not a factor in quicker home sales is a location in the vicinity of a hospital. In fact, Realtor.com found that, among their listings, those homes take even longer to sell and get very low prices.

In today’s market, however, focus has turned largely from individual features and toward housing inventory concerns. A recent National Association of Realtors reportfound that pending home sales dropped 2.5% in January, and NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said that one of the factors in the dip was the lack of housing inventory. And this factor, combined with rising prices, is constraining growth in the residential sector.