The spring housing market may be arriving earlier than expected, and right now some of the hottest markets in the country are not on the coasts.

They're in the Midwest. I'm Kathy Fetke, and this is real estate news for investors.

This is Real Estate News with Kathy Fedke.

According to a new report from Housing Wire, buyer demand is picking up quickly as we head

into the spring home buying season.

The key signal is something called the absorption rate.

That measures how fast homes are selling compared to how many new listings hit the market.

Right now, buyers are absorbing homes faster than sellers are

listing them. Nationally, the weekly absorption rate jumped to 11.9% for the week ending March 6th.

Just three weeks earlier, it was 9.7%. During that same week, about 82,000 homes went under contract,

while only about 61,000 new listings

came on the market. That means demand outpaced new supply by roughly one-third. Inventory also

slipped slightly, falling to about 686,000 homes nationwide. That keeps the market firmly in seller

territory, with just about 2.2 months of supply.

And the strongest demand right now is in the Midwest. According to Housing Wire data,

Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois are leading the nation in housing absorption. Michigan posted

the highest rate at 17.6 percent, followed closely by Ohio at 17.4 in Illinois at 17.2%.

Major metro areas like Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland are seeing homes sell quickly as buyers compete for limited inventory.

Detroit currently has only about 1.6 months of supply, while Chicago has

about 1.7. At those levels, homes tend to sell fast, and bidding competition often increases.

But the strength in the market isn't limited to the Midwest. Some high-cost areas are also showing

strong demand. For example, California's inland empire,

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