[IMGCAP(1)]

IRVINE, CA— According to a new home-sales report from RealtyTrac, six of the top-10 residential seller's markets in the country are located in California. The remaining four are in DC, North Dakota, North Carolina and Virginia. (See below for RealtyTrac's chart of the top seller's markets.)

While most residential markets are in favor of either sellers or buyers, some Goldilocks markets are showing a “just right” balance between the two, says RealtyTrac's VP Daren Blomquist in the report. The firm analyzed average sales prices and estimated market values at time of sale for single-family homes and condos sold in April in 315 US counties to identify the nation's hottest seller's markets, best buyer's markets and those markets evenly balanced between buyers and sellers.

“Nationwide in April, single-family homes and condos sold for almost exactly 100% of their estimated full market value on average, indicating a good balance between supply from sellers and demand from buyers,” says Blomquist. “At the local level, however, most markets tipped in favor of either sellers or buyers—although there were some Goldilocks markets exhibiting a 'just right' balance between buyers and sellers.”

According to OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, covering the Seattle market, “The Seattle housing market is completely controlled by sellers right now. Homes are selling as quickly as they're listed and usually for well over asking price. Some are concerned about the potential of another housing bubble given the lack of homes for sale and the bullishness of buyers in bidding up properties, but for now I believe that there are sufficient safeguards in place to keep this from happening. That being said, we can expect prices to continue rising at a steady pace until we start seeing the additional inventory that we so desperately need.”

As GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week, affording the down payment on a home is still a major hurdle for first-time home buyers, although personal savings have been inching up since 2008, Blomquist told us. Given the firm's recent report about many couples having to choose between a wedding and a down payment, we spoke exclusively with Blomquist about the role of down payments in home buyers' decisions and how likely it will be that Millennials will return to home buying at some point in the future.

[IMGCAP(2)]