Moving can be a stressful endeavor: selling your home, showing your home to prospective buyers, negotiating a price, buying another home, packing up, unpacking — it can result in high anxiety and emotions.

Research carried out by federally legal cannabis retailer, Mood, analyzed 355 U.S. metro areas across and found seven of the top 10 most stressful places for moving are in Florida and four of them are right here in Southwest Florida — Naples, Punta Gorda, North Port and Cape Coral.

The study used seven key indicators of moving stress, including home prices, number of days listings spend on the market, and price reductions.

Key West, leads the ranking with a moving stress index score of 64.17 out of 100. It takes homes in this area an average of 84 days to go from listing to pending sale, and a staggering 87.9% of homes are sold below their listing price. Homes in this metro area typically sell for $261,332 less than their asking price, representing a 22% decrease from the original listing.

Naples, ranks second with a stress score of 60.77. The coastal city's housing market shows lengthy selling periods, with homes spending an average of 68 days on the market before receiving an offer. Additionally, 22.8% of Naples listings experience price cuts during their time on the market, with a staggering 88.1% of homes sold below their listing price.

Punta Gorda, takes the third spot with a stress score of 58.91. Homes in this market take an average of 62 days to receive an offer, and 79.4% of properties sell below their listing price. The average home sells for $46,293 less than its asking price, reflecting a 13.4% reduction.

North Port, ranks fourth with a stress index score of 58.58. This market reveals that nearly a third (29.1%) of listings experienced price cuts, and 81.1% of homes sold below their listing price. Homes typically sell for $68,031 less than their asking price, a 13.8% reduction.

The Villages, a popular retirement community, ranks fifth with an index score of 58.19. The market shows 29.4% of listings with price cuts and 79.1% of homes selling below the original asking price.

Cape Coral, takes the sixth position with a stress score of 58.13. The area features 79.9% of homes selling below asking price, and homes in the area take an average of 60 days to go from being listed to a pending sale.

Utica, New York, ranks seventh with a score of 57.97, and is the first metro area outside of Florida to make the top ten. What sets Utica apart is the extremely long closing time, with an average of 64 days from pending to closed sale. This is the longest in the top ten and more than double the national average of 30 days.

Lake Charles, Louisiana, ranks eighth with a stress score of 57.95. Homes in this market take an average of 70 days to receive an offer, the second-longest of the 355 metro areas analyzed. Additionally, 68.9% of homes sell below their listing price.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, places ninth with a stress score of 57.46. The tourist destination features 26.1% of properties experiencing price cuts, with an average reduction of $9,131.

Sebastian, Florida, rounds out the top 10 with a stress score of 57.14. Homes in this market sell for $65,403 less than their asking price on average, representing a 15.31% reduction. Additionally, 76.8% of homes sell below the original listing price.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Appleton, Wisconsin, ranks as the least stressful place to move home with a score of 27.60 out of 100. The Wisconsin city features the lowest percentage of listings with price cuts at just 10% and takes an average of just six days for properties to go from pending sale to closed, the shortest time taken of any metro area analyzed.

Green Bay, Wisconsin, ranks second least stressful with a score of 31.82. The market features the second-fastest closing time among all metro areas at just nine days on average from pending to closed sale, and a low 12.3% of listings experience price cuts.

Hinesville, Georgia, takes third place with a stress score of 34.09. What sets this market apart is the median price cut of just $1,047 for properties in this metro area compared to the national average of $10,000.

Glenwood Springs, Colorado, ranks fourth with a stress score of 34.99. Despite its high median listing price of $1,403,889, the market has a low percentage of listings with price cuts at 16.1%.

Madison, Wisconsin, places fifth with a stress score of 35.20. Homes in this market move quickly, spending an average of just 14 days from listing to pending, and only 14.6% of listings experience price cuts.

Oshkosh, Wisconsin, ranks sixth with a stress score of 35.28. The market features an extremely quick closing time of 11 days from pending to closed sale, and the second-lowest percentage of listings with price cuts at 11.8%.

San Jose, California, takes seventh place with a stress score of 35.90. Unlike most markets, San Jose homes typically sell for $157,576 above their asking price, representing an 11.38% premium. This makes it one of the few seller's markets in the country.

Washington, DC, ranks eighth with a stress score of 35.90. The capital's housing market features a quick time from listing to pending of just 11 days and a relatively small price difference between listing and sale of -$22,294.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, places ninth with a score of 36.00. The market has a low percentage of listings with price cuts at 16% and homes move relatively quickly, taking just 22 days from listing to pending.

Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, rounds out the 10 least stressful metro areas to move from with a score of 36.06. In this market, it takes, on average, 14 days for homes to move from pending sale to closed, and just 12.6% of listings experienced a price cut.

Methodology:

Monthly property and listing data was taken from Zillow.com. The data was cleaned so that metro areas without monthly listing and sales price data were removed, resulting in an analysis of 355 metro areas. All data represented an average of the most recent 12-month period available: July 31, 2024 to June 30, 2025.

The following seven indicators and weightings were used for each metro area to determine the Stress Index Score:

• Median number of days from list to pending sale (20% weighting)
• Median number of days from pending sale to closed (20% weighting)
• Percentage of listings with a price cut (12% weighting)
• Median price cut percentage (12% weighting)
• Percentage of homes sold below listing price (12% weighting)
• Sale price difference from list price percentage (12% weighting)
• 12-month listing price change percentage (12% weighting)

Metro areas were ranked by their overall Stress Index Score, with a higher score indicating a more stressful place to move from.

Various large cities in non-disclosure states were removed due to missing data. This primarily affects Dallas, Texas, which is the largest city for which only a partial analysis is available.

WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.