Real-estate markets are hot in some parts of the country and not-so-hot, even downright cold, in other parts. And we’re not talking about winter temperatures.

In the month of September, 10 California cities made the list of the 20 hottest real-estate markets, including chart-topper San Francisco. By contrast, no California city is on the list of the 10 coldest real-estate markets.

Real-estate specialists at the National Association of Realtors’ sifted through the largest 100 U.S. metro areas and found 10 cities where homes don’t fly off the market and bidding wars among buyers are, shall we say, scarce. The list was also filtered to exclude markets where the unemployment rate ranked in the bottom 20% of major U.S. metro areas. After all, if there are no jobs in a particular city, then nobody wants to live there.

Jonathan Smoke, Realtor.com’s chief economist, noted:

This year has been great for the real estate market nationally, and we’re seeing widespread health and strong demand. These 10 markets are no exception. They are all healthy, they just aren’t as frenetic as other markets. In each of these areas, we’ve seen improved buying interest and faster sales compared to previous years.

Here are the 10 coldest real-estate markets, along with the median home price and the median days on the market:

1. El Paso, Texas: $160,000; 91 days
2. Albany, New York: $239,000; 96 days
3. Virginia Beach, Virginia: $259,300; 73 days
4. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: $176,900; 96 days
5. Augusta, Georgia: $194,700; 102 days
6. Columbia, South Carolina: $183,400; 75 days
7. Allentown, Pennsylvania: $192,500; 87 days
8. Greensboro, North Carolina: $167,500; 94 days
9. Birmingham, Alabama: $184,500; 86 days
10. New Haven, Connecticut: $252,500; 89 days

More details are available at the Realtor.com website.

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