(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of Pittsburgh Business Times)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Baden, PA) The housing market continued shifting in favor of buyers during the first quarter as listings increased, prices softened and seller profit margins narrowed.

Amid that shift, Baden emerged as the Pittsburgh metro area’s hottest housing market for the first quarter, according to The Business Journals’ latest analysis of quarterly listing and sales data from Intercontinental Exchange.

The rankings measure sales and pricing momentum in each ZIP code using a weighted formula that incorporates both quarterly and year-over-year data. Only ZIP codes with complete data, an average sales price of at least $441,000 and at least 10 homes sold during the quarter were included.

According to the analysis, Baden recorded 28 new listings and 18 home sales, with an average sale price of $534,046. Homes spent an average of 119 days on the market.

Baden also ranked No. 3 nationally — the highest a local ZIP code has placed since The Business Journals began using the methodology. Only West Palm Beach, Florida, and Tahoe City, California, ranked higher.