While Waltham may not be the hottest market for those looking to sell their homes, the Watch City tops the Forbes magazine charts.
The magazine lists Waltham as one of the 10 best suburbs in the country to sell a home. Using numbers from Altos Research, a California-based research firm, Waltham is on a list of seller-friendly communities that also includes Kennesaw, Ga.; Montclair, N.J.; Bedford, Texas; Matthews, N.C.; Berkeley, Calif.; Venice, Calif.; Sugar Land, Texas; Midvale, Utah; and Encinitas, Calif.
The Forbes article looked at suburbs in the 75 largest metropolitan areas in the county as defined by the U.S. Census and focused the scope on those cities with at least 75 homes on the market.
In Waltham, 53 percent of sellers have to lower their sale price to make a sale, and homes sit on the market an average of 79 days, the second shortest period of any of the 10 cities on the list.
Mike Simonsen, chief executive for Altos Research, said yesterday that while those numbers don't mean the city is a robust market, in a slumping economy they are among the best of the bunch.
Simonsen said of compiling the list of suburbs, "We were looking for the best, and what we found was the least bad."
Simonsen said the numbers were taken from a 90-day sales period that lasted until the end of October. Altos Research compiled the data used for the Forbes ranking.
Steve Mehigan, senior vice president and sales manager for the Waltham branch of Coldwell Banker, said the city's housing market is healthy.
"We enjoy less than 80 days on the market. We sell for 97 percent of the current asking price," Mehigan said.
The Waltham market is better than most, Mehigan said, because buyers aren't looking for unrealistic bargains and agents are working with sellers to make sure they don't overprice their homes.
Mehigan said that Waltham also has a lot to offer as a community for prospective homebuyers besides its proximity to Boston.
"We are, with a revitalized downtown and an up-and-coming school district, headed in a direction that makes us one of those gem-type communities," he said.
Simonsen said that the further out suburbs are from a major city, the more likely their home sales numbers aren't as strong.
Waltham received another mention in a national publication this past summer, when Money magazine ranked Waltham number 72 in a list of the 100 best places to live in America.
Richard Conn can be reached at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
