Housing

This Is the Hottest Real Estate Market in America

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: May 14, 2021 8:25 am

Home sales across much of the United States are on fire. Prices have recently risen at rates that top even the wild market of 2005 and 2006, just before the balloon burst and helped trigger the Great Recession.

Some of the recent demand in hot markets has been driven by people who have moved out of big cities because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people expect to work from home permanently and would like to live in cities and towns with lifestyle advantages. Mortgage rates remain near multidecade lows, and the incomes of many middle-class and upper-class Americans were not dented by last year’s economic downturn.

Realtor.com looked at home sales across cities for the month of April. The website economists picked the hottest markets, as “Looking at how quickly homes sell and which metros’ listings are viewed the most on our site gives us a picture of which markets are the hottest in the nation.”

Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale pointed out that five of the top 10 markets are in the Midwest. This is, in part, because the selling season tends to be in the spring and summer in these markets and demand peaks during those months. However, the top two markets were in the same state in April:

Meanwhile, the top two markets remained the same as in March: the New Hampshire metros of Manchester and Concord. Manchester, the state’s largest city, is no stranger to the hottest markets list—it was No. 2 in April 2020. Concord, on the other hand, leaped 22 spots from last year to land at No. 2 this year.

Some of these markets are not affluent. Rochester, New York, one of the old industrial cities that have posted a drop in population for years, ranks 10th. Yuba City, California, near Stockton, ranks 13th on the list. It has a low median household income compared to the national figure, as well as a poverty rate much higher than the U.S. rate.

These are the 20 hottest housing markets in America and their median listing prices:

• Manchester, New Hampshire, $400,000
• Concord, New Hampshire, $379,000
• Lafayette, Indiana, $303,000
• Janesville, Wisconsin, $258,000
• Elkhart, Indiana, $150,000
• Columbus, Ohio, $315,000
• Topeka, Kansas, $157,000
• Portland, Maine, $462,000
• Vallejo, California, $545,000
• Rochester, New York, $264,000
• Springfield, Ohio, $180,000
• Worcester, Massachusetts, $390,000
• Yuba City, California, $400,000
• Jefferson City, Missouri, $213,000
• Springfield, Massachusetts, $372,000
• Madison, Wisconsin, $392,000
• Eureka, California, $469,000
• Colorado Springs, Colorado, $494,000
• Stockton, California, $499,000
• Santa Cruz, California, $1,190,000

Click here to read about the cities where home prices are rising fastest.